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SEYMOUR  DURST 


When  you  leave,  please  leave  this  book 

Because  it  has  been  said 
"Sver'tbincj  comes  t'  bim  who  waits 

Except  a  loaned  book." 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/sixletterstopiouOOhein 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAI, 

INTRODUCED  BY 

AN  ADDRESS  TO  BISHOP  HUGHES, 


BY 

KARL  HEINZEN. 


TRANSLATED 


NEW  YORK:  OFFICE  OF  THE  "PIONEEE." 

1856. 

Price  10  cents  ;  100  copies  $6. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1853,  by  K.  HEINZEN, 
in  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  South- 
ern District  of  New  York. 


Stereotyped  by 

Miller  &  Holman,  N.  Y. 


TO  BISHOP  HUGHES. 


An  Introduction  to  the 
SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 

You  are  acquainted  with  the  old  adage  :  "Extremes  meet". 
May  the  word  "meet"  be  applied  to  a  hostile  rencounter,  or 
may  it  serve  to  distinguish  similarities,  which  present  just  the 
most  heterogeneous  elements,  —  the  old  adage  will  always  hold 
good.  In  permitting  myself,  out  of  favor  to  you,  to  be  consid- 
ered the  representative  of  an  "extreme",  I  appear  before  yon, 
the  representative  of  the  opposite  extreme,  not  merely  as  an  ad- 
versary, but  I  am  also  sufficiently  just  to  acknowledge  those 
qualities  on  your  side,  which  "meet* 1  mine.  It  is,  above  all 
things,  your  jesuitical  consistency  in  the  pursuance  of  your  aims, 
to  which  I  would  do  all  justice.  Endeavoring,  myself,  to  be 
consistent  in  acting  as  well  as  in  thinking,  being  convinced,  that 
only  consistency  can  secure  the  attainment  of  great  ends,  and 
taught,  at  the  same  time,  by  daily  experience  that  nothing  in 
the  world  is  so  rare  as  consistency,  I  readily  acknowledge  the 
same  even  there,  where  I  see  it  devoted  to  a  bad  purpose.  The 
clear  recognition  of  ends  and  means,  joined  to  talent  and  the 
will,  to  accomplish  the  one,  by  perseveringly  employing  the 
other,  is  ever  something  uncommon  and  must  always  command 
respect. 

If  I  now  begin  with  the  acknowledgement  of  your  consistency, 
you  will  certainly  smile  at  my  directly  following  that  admission 
with  requesting  an  inconsistency  of  you,  namely,  the  inconsist- 
ency of  stepping,  from  the  province  of  faith,  over  to  that  of 
reason.  But  I  will  facilitate  the  task  for  you,  in  as  much  as  I 
do  not  demand,  that  you  shall  defend  your  doctrines  with 
the  arguments  of  reason,  but  merely  that,  with  them,  you  shall 
overt  hrowmine.  As  reason,  with  you,  ranks  below  faith, 
you  have  the  advantage  of  availing  yourself  also  of  the  seconda- 
ry weapon,  to  which  I  challenge  you  ;  and  if  the  "aim  hallows 
the  means",  with  which  I  perfectly  agree,  without,  however, 
conceding  that  your  aim  is  a  hallowed  one,  you  will  not  perceive 
an  inconsistency  in  my  requesting  you  to  advance  the  lofty  in- 
terests of  faith  with  the  low  means  of  reason. 

We  live  in  an  age  that  urges  all  to  Parrhesy,  that  is,  to  the 
necessity  of  drawing  the  last  consequences,  to  say  the  last  word, 
or  by  deed,  as  it  were,  to  play  out  the  last  trump.  In  this 
state  of  Parrhesy,  revolution  and  reaction  stand  opposite  each 
other  in  every  province,  and  all  middle  positions  must  be  resign- 
ed as  untenable.    As  now,  within  the  province  of  politics,  only 


red  revolutionists  and  red  reactionists  are  really  yet  taken  into 
account,  thus,  within  the  province  of  religion,  only  Atheists  or 
Materialists  and  J esuits  are  of  import.  Atheism  is  the  Parrhesy 
of  the  law  of  reason  ;  Jesuitism  the  Parrhesy  of  religious  faith. 
Jesuitism  is  the  citadel,  in  which  religious  belief  must  find  its 
last  protection  —  and  its  grave.  No  wonder  that  the  citadel 
is  now  more  strongly  fortified  than  ever ;  but  the  stronger  is 
also  the  desire  to  take  it  or  to  blow  it  up.  Now,  I  am  not  one 
of  those  impetuous  combattants,  who  at  once  attack  the  scaling 
ladder  ;  nor  are  my  inclinations  of  so  subterranean  a  cast,  that 
I  would  busy  myself  with  the  laying  of  mines.  I  am  sufficiently 
humane  to  content  myself  with  forming  a  line  of  rational  argu- 
ments, that  you  and  your  comrades  may  have  the  choice  of 
bursting  the  line  with  the  shafts  of  reason,  or  surrendering  in 
silence.  The  objections  at  first  expected,  I  will  meet  in  the  be- 
ginning, in  order  that  the  business  of  refutation  may  be  easy 
to  you ;  if,  however,  you  do  not  refute,  then  your  silence  will  be 
the  avowal  of  your  defeat. 

Consistency  demands,  that  at  the  extirpation  of  a  tree  one 
should  secure  the  roots  and  not  rest  satisfied  with  chopping  off 
the  limbs  and  branches.  It  was  a  fruitless  struggle  to  attempt 
the  annihilation  of  Jesuitism  on  the  ground  of  belief.  Within 
the  province  of  belief,  Jesuitism  does  and  must  remain  victor  ; 
it  alone  is  justified,  alone  consistent  and  all  Protestantism,  of  an 
old  or  new  kind,  is  nothing  more  than  the  idle  disobedience  of  the 
child  toward  the  father.  Whoever  would  attack  J esuitism,  must 
pursue  it  further  than  to  Father  Loyola  ;  must  grasp  it  at  the 
root  of  life,  which  secures  to  it  growth  even  without  Loyola. 
This  root  is  belief,  and  the  issuing  point  of  belief  is  "God"  ; 
is  that  much  talked  of  and  all-unknown  "being ",  from  whom  all 
existence  and  nonexistence  is  said  to  proceed  ;  is  that  authority, 
which  never  demands  personal  respect,  and  respect  to  which  is 
only  vindicated  by  others  ;  is  that  power  now  represented  as 
Greatness,  now  as  a  Terror,  that  can  do  everything,  and  yet 
is  guarded  like  an  enervated  old  man  ;  is  that  stern  Sovereign 
and  Judge,  who  can  see  into  the  hearts  and  kidneys  of  all,  and 
nevertheless  suffers  certain  persons  in  black  coats,  with  fat  and 
flaccid  bellies,  with  short  and  "long"  fingers,  without  any  writ- 
ten permit,  nor  any  document  whatever  from  His  cabinet,  to 
nominate  themselves  His  repsesentatives,  ministers,  generals,  po- 
lice, taxcollectors,  privy  counselors,  adjutants,  jailors,  yes  even 
his  hangmen,  in  order  to  govern,  exercise,  watch,  leech,  casti- 
gate, aye,  even  to  behead  mankind  in  His  name. 

It  is  clear,  that  as  long  as  this  wondrous  Sovereign  exists  and 
is  respected,  his  ministers,  generals  &c.  will  have  an  easy  game 
and,  through  fictitious  cabinet-orders  and  the  imposition  of  taxes, 
dispose  at  pleasure  of  heads  and  purses.    But  if  this  Sovereign 


dissolved  to  naught,  or  if  he  be  recognized  as  the  creature  of 
his  so  called  servants,  then  these  also,  from  the  representative 
down  to  the  hangman  will  have  come  to  an  end  ;  and  well  may 
they  rejoice,  if  deposition  be  their  sole  punishment. 

You  see,  Reverend  High  Shepherd,  that  I  appear  against 
you  with  all  possible  honesty.  You  will  call  him  no  common 
enemy,  who  challenges  you  to  slay  him,  that  you  may  remain 
alive.  Do  not,  however,  let  yourself  be  drawn  into  the  error  of 
thinking,  that  the  declaration  of  my  belief,  with  which  in  the 
following  letters  I  shall  oppose  you,  is  merely  intended  to  elicit 
controversy,  and  that  I  am  only  an  atheist  because  you  are  a 
Jesuit.  The  sun  does  not  shine  exclusively  for  the  purpose  of 
transforming  our  earthly  night  into  day ;  it  becomes  day  even 
because  the  sun  shines,  and  it  would  shine  still  though  our  earth 
were  to  sink  into  an  abyss  of  the  universe. 

The  following  letters  contain  the  confession  of  the  belief  of  an 
"Atheist"  in  a  concise  form.  They  have  already  existed  ten 
years  in  the  German  language  and  have  in  vain  awaited  refu- 
tation ;  perhaps  they  will  prove  more  fortunate,  having  made 
their  appearance  in  the  English  language,  if  you,  Sir,  famed  as 
a  controvertist,  will  honor  them  with  your  attention. 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


First  clear  sky,  then  clear  ground  ! 

I. 

You  condemn  me  as  an  infidel.  I  will  give  you  an  opportunity 
of  founding  your  sentence  of  condemnation,  in  as  much,  as  I  shall 
disclose,  with  all  human  candor,  my  inmost  thoughts  to  you. 
Let  us  begin  with  the  main  point,  with  the  "cause  of  all  things", 
with  your  " God".  But  I  must  premise  the  subject  itself  with 
a  few  remarks  upon  the  manner,  in  which  you  are  in  the  habit 
of  treating  the  same. 

If  you  are  as  consequential  in  thinking  as  in  acting,  you  will  al- 
low me  to  point  out  the  contradiction,  in  which  the  kind  of  your 
god-worship  stands  to  the  conception  of  your  ,,God".  If,  name- 
ly, you  really  imagine  your  „God"  such  as  you  seek  to  repre- 
sent him,  I  must  then  ask  you,  who  offends  him  more,  I,  who 
deny  him,  or  you,  who  seek  to  defend  him  against  me  ?  What 
,,God"  is  he,  who  must  be  defended  by  his  creature,  that  kneels, 
powerless  and  humble,  before  him  ?  What  ,,God"  is  he,  who 
is  endangered  by  being  denied  ?  What  „God"  is  he,  whose  an- 
ger is  aroused,  as  you  assume,  by  his  creature  being  too  blend- 
ed to  recognize  him  ?  What  „God"  is  he,  who  needs  to  his  rescue 
the  assistance  of  police  or  of  rabble  ?  What  ,,God"  is  he,  whose 
most  zealous  defenders  are  the  combatants  of  reason  and  free- 
dom ?  Reverend  father,  I  would  be  justified  in  doubting  your 
truthfulness,  when  you  say,  that  you  believe  in  a  ,,God",  for, 
whoever  believes  in  a  ,,God",  must  certainly  also  form  an  idea 
of  him,  and  whoever  forms  an  idea  of  him,  must  form  a  more 
worthy  one  of  a  ,,God",  than  that  he  should  require  the  protec- 
tion of  populace,  priests  or  police.  How  will  you  expect  me 
to  believe  in  a  „God",  whom  you  let  appear  the  abstract,  at  once, 
of  hate  and  impotence  ?  You  can  give  your  ,,God"  no  greater 
"testimonium  pauper tatis",  than  by  the  animosity,  with  which 
you  watch  and  persecute  the  doubts  of  his  existence.  You  as- 
sert, that  you  are  as  well  convinced  of  „ God's"  existence  as  of 
your  own.  If  I  should  think  of  denying  your  existence,  you 
would  laugh  at  me  ;  but  if  I  deny  your  „God",  you  consider 
him  endangered  and  persecute  me.  How  does  this  harmonize, 
„god  worshipper"  ?  You  unconsciously  give  to  understand,  that 
you  assume  the  possibility  of  your  ,,God"  being  annihilated  and 


4 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


with  him  the  foundation  of  your  spiritual  existence  and  world  of 
belief.  You  are  aware,  that  you  are  not  the  creature  of  a  ,,God"; 
but  that  ,,God"  is  your  creature.  In  this  your  creature  and  in 
your  „ belief  in  the  same,  you  do  not  guard  ,,God",  who  can 
not  need  protection,  but  your  office,  your  influence,  your  means 
of  sway,  in  short  your  priestly  egotism.  As  long  as  your  ,,God" 
exists,  you  are  a  potential  man  ;  as  soon  as  he  falls,  you  fall 
also  ;  you  may,  from  a  richly  endowed  priest,  perhaps,  become 
a  beggar,  from  a  man  of  property  a  vagabond,  from  a  patron  of 
the  church  a  servant,  from  a  general  a  petty  officer,  or  from  a 
pattern  of  virtue  you  may  become  a  scoundrel,  that  is,  a  declared 
one. 

Would  you  prevent  me  from  giving  expression  to  the  fact, 
that  I  can  not  believe  in  your  „God"  ?  Would  you,  in  honor 
of  your  ,,God",  make  me  a  liar  unto  him  ?  Would  you  main- 
tain, that  out  of  regard  for  your  „God",  one  may  not  think 
what  in  accordance  with  his  nature  he  must  think,  and  not  say 
what  he  thinks  ?  Are  you  the  censor  of  your  „God"  ?  Think 
what  you  can,  and  believe  what  you  will,  and  say  what  you  be- 
lieve ;  but  allow  me  to  do  the  same,  or  you  will  have  to  admit, 
that  I,  without  the  assistance  of  a  „God",  act  more  tolerantly 
and  godly"  than  you  at  the  hand  and  in  the  name  of  your 
„God".  But  may  you  be  intolerant  and  prevent  what  you  will; 
as  little  as  you  can  hinder  Woman  from  bringing  forth  that 
which  she  bears  in  her  womb,  *  as  little  shall  you  hinder  my  na- 
ture from  following  out  its  necessities  and  setting  to  light,  in 
comprehensible  language,  as  its  spiritual  fruit,  the  creed  of  a 
new  time. 

According  to  your  principles,  presupposing  their  uprightness, 
it  may  seem  consistent  to  pity  me  as  one  missing  the  ,, consola- 
tion" of  believing  in  your  ,,God";  but  if,  on  account  thereof,  you 
get  angry  at  me,  you  act  extremely  inconsistent,  for  attempt- 
ing to  compel  a  man  to  believe  in  ,,God",  is  but  to  streng- 
then him  in  his  d  o  u  b  t  s  of  „God". 

As  to  the  ,, consolation",  leave  it  calmly  to  me,  to  make  out 
my  case  with  ,,God"  between  ourselves,  if  you  believe,  that  I 
shall  come  in  collision  with  him.  If  you  fear  as  little  for  your 
,,God",  as  I  fear  for  myself,  you  can  readily  grant  me  this  re- 
quest. But  you  also  must  grant  it,  for  if  it  be  an  outrage,  not 
to  believe  in  ,,God",  then  you  are  at  most  justified  in  appearing 
as  witness,  but  not  as  j  u  d  g  e  in  the  case.  How  can  you  be 
judge  in  the  affairs  of  a  being,  whom  you  can  not  comprehend, 
and  by  whom,  according  to  your  own  assurance,  you  yourself 
will  be  judged?  If  this  being  be  so  constituted  as  you  imagine 
him  to  be,  you  must  admit,  that  he  alone  is  capable  of  judging 
his  own  case,  and  that  he  also  does  not  require  your  testimony. 

As  with  your  ,,God",  you  deal  likewise  with  the  religion  ap- 
pended to  him.    You  praise  its  might,  its  immutability,  its  un- 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAX*.  5 

shakableness,  and  yet  you  cry  aloud  and  complain  of  the  under- 
mining of  all  „ godliness "  whenever  it  is  touched  with  the  knive 
of  unbelieving  criticism.  Can  anything  more  ridiculous,  than 
this  proceeding,  be  thought  of,  and  can  there  likewise  be  a  more 
speaking  proof  of  the  insolidity  of  your  own  belief  ?  If  a  boy 
tells  you,  that  he  will  dash  the  Chimborasso  to  fragments  with 
a  pebble,  will  you  prevent  him  from  making  the  trial  ?  Will 
your  anger  be  excited,  because  he  gives  you  an  opportunity  to 
convince  him  of  his  folly  ?  Well  then,  you  represent  your  ,,G-od" 
and  your  religion  as  a  Chimborasso,  and  give  yourself  the  ap- 
pearance of  holding  criticism  for  the  boy  with  the  pebblestone. 
Why  do  you  not  permit  him  to  arrive  at  the  conviction  of  the 
unshakableness  of  the  Chimborasso  through  his  own  experience, 
and  by  his  vain  endeavors  also  to  impart  his  conviction  to 
others  ?  Should  you  not  rather  wish  for  than  hate  criticism, 
if  you  believe  in  its  inefficiency  ?  I  must  straightway  declare 
to  you,  that  you  become  a  liar  unto  your  ,,G-od"  and  your  reli- 
gion no  less  than  unto  yourself,  if  you  preach  ban  and  flames 
against  those,  who  give  you  the  opportunity  of  proving  that 
which  you  proclaim  as  your  belief.  You  unweariedly  repeat  : 
,,They  shall  not  overcome  the  portals  of  hell'7  ;  but  scarcely  are 
the  portals  of  reason  opened,  and  you  hold  all  for  lost.  With 
your  heavenly  affairs,  it  is  exactly  the  same  as  with  the  affairs 
of  earthly  gods,  who  likewise  so  haughtily  boast  of  their  rocklike 
durability,  jvhilst  they  do  not  believe  themselves  secure  in  their 
laughable  existence  for  a  week's  time,  unless  through  censorism, 
and  by  other  forcible  and  false  means,  they  prevent  the  expo- 
sure of  their  imbecilities.  All  of  you  may  take  axample  by  me 
and  those  like  me.  What  we  believe  and  what  we  are,  we 
fearlessly  and  without  reserve  make  subject  to  each  criticism, 
if  this  criticism  reject  but  one  aid,  which  we,  on  our  side,  as 
little  wish  for  as  possess,  and  which,  you  will  have  to  aknow- 
ledge,  is  nowhere  more  unaptly  placed,  than  at  the  side  of  a 
„GocF  :  I  mean  the  aid  of  police  and  rabble- fists! 

You  say,  that  which  is  holy  dare  not  be  touched.  But  what 
then  is  h  o  1  y  ?  How  can  anything  attest  its  power,  the  effect 
of  its  ,, holiness",  if  from  the  very  first  I  declare  it  unapproach- 
able ?  How  can  any  thing  be  testet  by  the  „ portals  of  hell",  if 
from  the  very  first  I  determine,  that  it  dare  not  approach  them  ? 
Is  not  the  assertion  of  such  holiness  a  bare  attestation  of  weak- 
ness ?  Upon  what  is  this  holiness  based  ?  Upon  the  nature  of 
the  holy  itself  —  impossible  !  for  if  the  holy  is  conscious,  that  it 
can  bear  no  touching,  then  verily,  it  is  not  worth  being  deemed 
holy.  Whereupon  then  ?  Upon  the  will  of  those,  who  venerate 
the  holy  ?  Well  then,  I  ask  again,  whereupon  this  will  is  based  ? 
Certainly  not  upon  the  reliance,  that  the  holy  can  actually  stand 
the  test.  What  else  remains  to  you  in  opposition  to  this 
assertion,  but  to  permit  of  the  test  being  made  ?    If  you  will 


6 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN, 


not  accede  to  this,  if  this  ,, holiness"  is  to  depend  merely  on  your 
arbitration,  then  I  lay  claim  to  the  same  liberty  as  you  take  for 
yourself,  and  herewith  demand,  that  my  unbelief  in  your  ,,God" 
and  your  religion  be  likewise  considered  holy.  You  speak  of 
freedom  of  conscience  ;  would  you  have  it  for  yourself  alone  ? 
Believe  me,  Sir,  my  convictions,  in  certain  respects,  are  more 
sacred  to  me,  than  your  belief  is  to  you.  The  difference  merely 
consists  in  my  vindicating  the  right  of  my  convictious  being  test- 
ed, and  in  your  vindicating  the  right  of  withdrawing  your  belief 
from  the  test.  For  me,  there  is  nothing  in  the  world  more 
sacred  than  truth  ;  and  truth  wants  and  demands  to  be  tested. 

Pious  man,  above  all  things,  keep  aloof  from  me  with  your 
"holiness",  for  "holiness"  is  nothing  but  a  shield  for  the  despo- 
tism of  falsehood.  There  is  nothing  in  the  world  more  sacred 
than  right  on  the  one  side,  and  duty  on  the  other.  At  these 
sanctuaries,  built  on  the  foundation  of  truth,  you  may  shake 
and  criticize  as  you  will  ;  they  remain  what  they  are,  and  rea- 
son builds  them  up  again  whenever  falsehood  has  destroyed 
them.  But  that  by  right  and  duty  I  understand  something 
different  from  your  interpretation,  will  be  subsequently  shown. 

II. 

As  long  as  Man  had  not  become  conscious  of  himself  and 
could  not  arrive  at  a  closer  knowledge  of  things  that  were  and 
wrought  beside  himself,  it  was  quite  natural,  that  he  should 
ascribe  all  phenomena  and  effects  of  nature  to  a  power,  which 
he  conceived  and  magnified  according  to  his  own  being.  Every- 
thing thus  received  in  his  eyes  a  supernatural,  yet  nevertheless 
from  human  nature  abstracted  origin  and  character  ;  and  as  every 
living  being  conceives  things  according  to  the  benefit  or  injury 
they  do  to  him,  it  simply  so  happened,  that  miscomprehending 
Man  attributed  to  all,  that  met  his  senses,  a  design  relative  to 
himself,  and  by  which  the  imagined  higher  power  made  known 
its  relation  to  him.  The  good  weather,  that  ripened  his  fruits, 
betokened  the  good  design  of  a  higher  power,  and  he  offered 
thanks  ;  the  hailstorm,  that  crushed  his  fruits,  betokened  an 
inimical  design,  and  he  prayed  for  grace.  Thus  Man  arrived  at 
the  belief  in  a  "God".  Not  the  heart,  as  has  been  maintain- 
ed, but  interests  and  miscomprehension  have  created  that 
which  is  generally  called  "God".  God  is,  in  truth,  nothing 
but  the  unrecognized  cause  of  things,  which  Man 
conceived  as  a  potential  human,  that  is,  a  superhuman  being,  and 
which  he  in  his  conception  gradually  so  modeled,  that  he  enter- 
ed into  an  imaginary  relation  to  the  same,  not  only  with  his 
in  hope  and  fear  abiding  interests,  but  also  with  his  ideas  and 
feelings.  Thus  was  not  only  "God"  originated,  but  also  the 
"Father",  the  "King  of  the  World"  &c. 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN, 


7 


You  perceive  at  once,  from  this  view  of  the  origin  of  the  god- 
idea,  that  it  is  an  impossibility  for  my  understanding,  to  form  a 
compromising  agreement  with  the  belief  in  your  "God".  You 
must  therefore  advance  rational  arguments  for  this  belief,  and  if  I 
am  to  be  converted,  you  must  so  settle,  and  so  enthrall  my  rea- 
son, that  it  can  neither  out  nor  in,  as  for  instance  is  the  case 
when  you  say  :  twice  two  are  four.  Let  us  then  look  at  your 
arguments  somewhat  closer. 

The  reasons,  which  you  generally  offer  for  the  existence  of  a 
"God",  have  not  come  in  contact  with  the  doubt  of  "God", 
but  only  with  the  b  eli  e  f  in  "God",  and  are  therefore  no  reasons 
for  me.  Guided  by  the  principles  of  reason,  I  must  proceed 
from  the  right  of  doubting  all  that  I  cannot  comprehend,  and 
then  make  my  belief  depend  on  the  arguments,  that  may  arise 
pro  and  contra,  Not  belief,  but  doubt  is  to  me  the  magic 
wand  of  Truth.  Hitherto  belief  in  "God"  has  prevailed  in  the 
world  and  disbelif  becomes  opposed  to  belief.  If  disbelief  had 
hitherto  prevailed,  and  belief  should  now  take  its  place,  the 
courseof  argumentation  must  provequite  adif- 
ferent  one.  Imagine  to  yourself,  that  no  farspread  belief 
existed,  that  you  were  about  to  found  the  same,  found  it  in  an 
educated  world,  which  from  the  very  beginning  recognized  only 
that,  which  I  place  in  the  stead  of  the  belief  in  "God",  and 
then  ask  yourself,  what  reasons  you  would  furnish  for  this  belief? 
Put  this  question  earnestly  to  yourself,  and  you  will  at  least 
come  to  exert  your  reasoning  powers  more,  than  the  habit  of 
believing  has  hitherto  made  necessary  to  you  to  do.  If  you  de- 
mand belief  of  me,  then  I  demand,  that  you  will  forthwith  pro- 
duce unequivocal  evidence  of  the  existence  of  "God"  and 
fixed  views  of  his  being,  or  else  I  will  continue  to  deny  him  "in 
contumaciam". 

There  is  to  be  no  effect  possible  without  a  cause,  consquently 
no  creation  without  a  creator.  This  is  the  main  and  in  fact  the 
only  argument  worthy  of  examination,  whereby  you  and  others 
support  and  can  support  yourselves.  In  reply  I  must  simply 
remark  to  you,  that  I  can  not  admit  of  a  creation,  where  noth- 
ing has  been,  consequently  can  only  conceive  of  a  change  of 
the  already  extant,  be  it  by  transformation,  be  it  by 
decomposition,  be  it  by  combination,  or  be  it  by  devel- 
opment of  a  germ.  A  creation  is  a  nonsense.  You  would 
prove  by  your  proposition,  that  there  once  existed  no  world  and 
that  the  same  was  created  by  a  being,  whom  you  call  "God". 
Consequently  this  being  must  have  existed  prior  to  te  world. 
But,  I  ask  you,  wh  ere  did  this  being  exist,  and  what  existed 
before  him?  "Who  again  created  this  being  ?  You  answer  : 
He  existed  from  eternity.  Well  then,  if  nothing  remains  to  you 
for  a  foundation  but  this  eternity,  beyond  which  I  as  little  as 
yourself  can  go,  and  which  does  not  at  all  admit  of  an  enquiry 


8 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


after  the  p  r  im  e  cause,  I  then  ask,  why  do  you  not  shorten 
the  processs  and  at  once  declare  :  the  world  exists  from  eter- 
nity? !  If  "God"  could  exist  without  a  cause,  then  the  world 
could  also  exist  without  a  cause,  that  is,  be  the  cause  of  itself. 
If  you  can  imagine  a  "God"  who  existed  without  the  world  from 
eternity,  then  you  can  much  easier  imagine  a  World,  that 
existed  from  eternity  without  "God".  I  maintain,  that  you  can 
as  little  imagine  a  "God"  without  a  world,  as  a  "God" 
beyond  the  world.  Consequently  you  are  obliged,  to  let  your 
"God"  and  the  world  exist  together  from  eternity. 
But  thereby  your  "God"  again  gets  into  a  dilemma,  because  he 
must  have  existed  i  n  the  world  and  was  thus  not  independent 
of  the  world,  and  therefore  no  "God".  I  will  spare  him  this 
embarrassment ;  I  make  no  distinction  between  this  "God"  and 
this  world,  but  imagine  to  myself  simply  aworld,  that  has 
existed  from  eternity,  that  in  its  development  has  undergone, 
and  still  will  undergo,  many  changes.  I  can  not  conceive, 
that  this  world,  or  the  material  for  it,  did  at  one  time  not 
exist,  and  that,  as  you  say,  it  in  the  course  of  time  grew  out  of 
nothing,  for,  out  of  nothing  can  now  and  never  arise  a  some- 
thing. If'  I  once  assume,  that  the  world,  this  great  "organism" 
of  suns  and  stars,  could  have  arisen  from  nothing,  then 
verely  there  is,  also  nothing  to  prevent  me 
from  letting  it  arise  without  the  assistence 
of  a  "God".  But  if  I  would  absolutely  imagine,  that  the 
world  was  born  out  of  a  "God",  who,  as  nothing  can  proceed 
from  nothing,  must  necessarily  have  had  all  the  material  for  the 
world  within  himself,  I  do  not  perceive,  why  I  should  not  rather, 
instead  of  that  "God",  whom  I  know  not  where  to  place  out- 
side of  the  world,  take  the  world  itself  and  consider  "God" 
to  be  the  world  and  simply  declare,  that  the  world  was  born 
of  itself,  that  is,  developed  ?  The  simple  solution  of  your  enig- 
ma is  therefore  this,  that  "cause"  and  "effect"  coin- 
cide, that  creator  and  creation  are  one  and  the 
same,  namely,  the  World  or  Universe. 

Further  enquiries,  as  to  the  manner  of  the  world's  develop- 
ment and  the  primitive  matter  of  the  same,  lead  me  into 
chemical,  geological,  and  astronomical  science ;  in  respect  to 
its  beginning  and  its  prime-impulse,  I  come  back  to 
eternity,  before  which  you  with  your  "God"  stand  even  as  still 
as  I  without  a  "God",  as  on  the  whole  theology  has  simply 
borrowed  all  its  conceptions  from  common  sense,  in  order 
to  in  turn  impress  them  as  something  higher,  in  mysterious  form 
upon  the  same.  It  no  longer  condescends  to  meet  the  doubts 
of  common  sense  and  proudly  shuns  its  enquiries.  Ask  yourself 
for  instance,  quite  simply,  where  then  your  "God"  remained,  af- 
ter he  had  created  or  born  the  world  ?  Do  you  imagine  him, 
once  again  this  question,  perhaps  outside  of  the  world  ? 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


9 


outside  of  the  world?  Can  you  do  this  ?  Do  you  perhaps  as- 
sume, that  htewrold  has  separated  itself  from  him  as  a  child  from 
its  mother  ?  Then  I  must  ask,  what  became  of  the  mother  ?  You 
will  certainly  not  assert,  that  there  exists  a  particular  world, 
wither  the  creator  of  our's  retired  as  to  a  palace,  and  whence 
he  issues  his  commands?  You  say  rather  yourself, 
that  he  is  "omnipresent'',  which  idea  you  have  again  borrowed 
from  common  sense.  But  if  he  be  "omnipresent if  he  be  pres- 
ent in  all  parts  of  the  world,  then  he  cannot  get  out  of  it,  then 
he  is  simply  apart  of  all  parts  of  the  same,  is  inseparable 
from  it,  is  himself  World.  There  remains,  if  the  word  "God" 
is  to  be  retained,  only  a  worldly  "God"  or  a  godly  world,  but 
not  a  god  a  n  d  a  world.  This  little  word  and  decides  all. 
Then  say  rather,  with  common  sense,  that  "God"  is  the 
world  or  the  world  is  "God",  or  be  quite  consequential  and  say : 
the  world  is — the  world,  and  "God"  is  a  chimera. 

In  reducing  the  world  to  itself,  I  have,  indeed,  not  solved  the 
riddles,  which  you  commonly  propose  by  extolling  the  won- 
drous "guidance"  and  "preservation",  by  which  instead  of 
the  laws  of  Nature  you  introduce  an  independent  monarch's 
will,  as  though  the  world  were  a  kingdom  after  Solomonic 
pattern.  In  a  word,  I  have  not  yet  expounded  or  fathomed 
the  laws  o  f  N  a  t  u  r  e.  But  apart  from  this,  that  not  all  things 
can.  be  fathomed,  as  every  investigation  but  opens  the  road 
to  new  investigations,  and  the  solution  of  all  problems  would 
be  equal  to  the  cessation  of  all  development,  or  to  Death,  I  merely 
ask,ifyou  can  conceive  a  digression  from  Nature's 
laws?  Can  you  conceive  a  sovereign  of  the  world,  in  whose 
will  it  lay,  to  remove  but  a  single  power  of  Nature,  or  compel 
it  to  produce  an  other  effect  than  that  which  it  has  hitherto  pro- 
duced ?  Let  your  "God"  once  change  water  to  fire  and  the  earth 
to  water  and  in  a  few  hours  he  will  have  nothing  more  to 
"guide"  nor  to  "preserve",  not  even  himself.  But  if  you  must 
admit,  that  your  Lord*  of  the  world  cannot  transpose  the  laws 
of  Nature,  that  he  therefore,  instead  of  governing,  is  governed 
by  them,  then  all  the  sovereign  wisdom,  which  you  would  attrib- 
ute to  a  monarch  independent  of  Nature,  falls  down  before 
Nature's  necessities.  "Wisdom",  "order",  and  organic  life  of 
the  world  are  nothing  else  and  nothing  more  than  the  simple 
and  inevitable  result  of  the  material  powers  of  different  elements 
reconciled  by  responding  combinations. 

As  I  can  not  think  of  anything  beyond  the  universe,  thus  I 
can  also  think  of  no  more  universes  than  one.  This  one,  this 
allcomprising,  this  unit  world,  I  can  as  little  conceive  to  be 
finite  in  space  as  in  time,  and  even  as  little  finite  in  its 
development.  The  acme  of  this  development  runs  into  self- 
conscious-grown  spirit  and  this  spirit  manifests  itself  in  human- 
kind.   I  indeed  assume,  that  on  the  other  celestial  bodies  there 


10 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


are  also  beings,  in  whom  the  spirit  is  manifested  in  a  similar 
manner,  and  perhaps  in  still  higher  potency,  than  in  mankind  ; 
but  as  long  as  mankind  comes  not  in  contact  with  these  beings 
(a  contact,  which  for  the  rest  could  afford  Man  no  disclosures 
running  contrary  to  his  development,  as  otherwise,  this  develop- 
ment could  not  have  led  to  these  disclosures),  it  has  no  other 
foundation  of  knowledge,  than  i  t  s  e  1  f,  as  it  also  has  no  other 
aim,  than  its  development,  which  is  at  once  development  of  the 
world.  But  the  purpose  of  its  development  is  nothing  else  but 
conscious  knowledge  and  happiness.  May  Man  recognize  that 
his  aim  is  himself,  and  he  then  will. also  attain  thatkaim. 

The  world  is  an  infinite  whole  of  physical  matters  and  powers 
existing  from  eternity.  This  definition  does  not  at  all  suffer 
from  the  fact,  that  the  elements  combined  out  of  chaotic  masses 
and  their  powers,  erst  after  various  revolutions  found  their 
proper  sphere  of  action.  These  powers  operating  in  matter, 
presented  themselves  partially  as  bound,  partially  as  free,  thus 
partially  as  socalled  natural,  partially  as  socalled  spiritual 
powers  ;  but  they  are  such  not  from  an  original  distinguishment 
ot  Nature  and  Spirit ;  the  socalled  spirit  first  formed  itself 
through  a  cooperation  of  various  natural  powers  and  is,  as  it 
were,  an  extract  of  Nature.  Through  this  cooperation,  Nature, 
after  having  further  developed  herself,  first  in  subordinate  form- 
ations, the  animals,  arrives  in  the  form  of  later  originated  Man 
to  "consciousness",  to  "freedom",  to  "reason",  and  now  dispo- 
ses of  herself,  studies  herself,  cultivates  herself,  perfects  herself 
with  mind.  She  will  also  come  so  far,  as  to  make  herself  in 
the  form  of  Man,  and  that  Man  will  entirely  learn  to  know  and 
govern  his  being  and  his  mind,  in  respect  to  its  origin  as  well  as 
to  its  constitution.  The  presentiment  of  this  perfection  it  was, 
wich  gave  to  Man  the  idea  of  an  "Omnipotence",  an  "Omnis- 
cience" &c. ;  but  as  he  did  not  yet  see  them  realized  in  him- 
self, and  had  not  the  courage  to  attribute  them  to  himself,  he 
transferred  them  meanwhile  to  an  imaginary  being,  whom 
he  called  "God".  He  had  likewise  the  presentiment  of  "omni- 
presence", which  signifies  nothing  else  but  his  connection  with 
the  whole  of  Nature,  whose  noblest  powers,  as  it  were,  stream 
in  him  together. 

As  I  have  already  told  you,  I  meanwhile  stand  still  with  you 
before  eternity.  I  accept  of  it,  I  presuppose  it  ;  but  I  even  so 
presuppose  the  eternity  of  the  existing  matter  and  its  powers, 
with  the  germ  of  an  eternal  development.  A  reason  existing 
prior  to  these  matters  and  powers,  into  which  it  should  have 
infused  existence  and  development,  is  to  me  nonsense.  For, 
firstly,  I  can  not  imagine  reason  as  something  having  an  isolated 
existence,  not  without  these  matters  and  powers  ;  secondly,  if 
these  matters  and  powers  came  into  existence  erst  after  and 
through  reason,  to  then  recieve  from  it  the  law  of  reason,  I 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN, 


H 


must  assume,  that  reason  had  originally  produced  them  as  some- 
thing unreasonable,  which  is  a  contradiction  ;  and  thirdly,  rea- 
son were  very  unreasonable,  if,  capable  of  existing  for  itself, 
it  still  were  to  make  itself  dependent  on  those  matters  and 
powers,  in  which  it  first  made  its  appearance. 

These  observations  will  make  it  clear  to  you,  how  absurd  your 
assumption  of  a  socalled  "providence "  is.  You  assume,  as  it 
were,  a  government  existing  from  eternity,  but  which,  neverthe- 
less, did  not  exist  as  long  as  it  had  nothing  to  govern,  and  which 
therefore  created  for  itself  a  kingdom  called  the  world.  Is  this 
not  absurd  ?  And  still  more  absurd  is  the  further  consequence, 
namely,  that  the  government  which  as  "allknowing"  and  "all- 
wise  "  must  beforehand  know  to  all  eternity,  what  it  will  do  and 
whereunto  it  will  govern,  should  still  give  itself  the  everlasting 
trouble  of  this  governing  ;  thus,  in  fact,  carrying  on  the 
business  of  a  frightful,  eternal,  "godly "  ennui.  As  "allmighty" 
this  government  would  act  far  more  sensibly,  by  at  once 
consummating  perfection,  instead  of  eternally  turning  round  on 
its  own  wisdom,  at  most  for  the  purpose,  as  it  were,  of  taking 
"godly "  exercise  upon  the  infinite  prairie  of  omniscience. 

III. 

As  you  are  aware,  there  are  socalled  Pantheists,  who  take  the 
whole  world  to  be  "God".  You  are  partially  a  Pantheist  your- 
self, since  your  belief  teaches,  that  "God"  is  omnipresent. 
Pantheism  is  virtually  a  nonentity  and  in  substance  quite  similar 
to 'socalled  Atheism.  It  shuns  denying .  "God"  openly  and 
honestly  and  thinks  to  conciliate  both  parties  by  placing  "God" 
everywhere,  instead  of  supplanting  him  by  that  wherein  it 
places  him.  It  thinks  to  rescue  "God"  by  getting  rid  of  him 
ina  round-about  way.  It  seems  to  me  like  one,  who, 
not  at  once  to  do  away  with  the  nobility  and  still  not  to  offend 
the  citizenship,  would  make  nobleman  of  all  the  citizens.  If  I 
convert  the  whole  world  to  "God",  consequently  transfer  "God" 
partially  and  chiefly  into  mankind,  then  it  is  in  reality  the  same 
as  if  I  partially  convert  "God"  to  Man  ;  but  if  I  do  this,  then 
the  personal,  specifically  different,  apart 
from  the  world  and  mankind  existing  "god", 
is  done  away  with,  and  this  is  just  the  decisive  point. 
The  subterfuge,  that  there  could  be  in  the  world  a  central 
point,  a  heart,  as  it  were  (which  does  not  however  suit  to  the 
idea  of  infinity),  in  which  the  world-spirit  has  its  primeval  seat 
of  life,  and  in  which  it  sooner  came  to  consciousness  than  in 
mankind,  does  not  at  all  alter  the  case.  To  enter  upon  such  an 
assumption,  it  is  not  denied,  that,  as  the  spirit  of  Man,  con- 
centrated chiefly  in  the  head,  with  the  whole  human  body,  thus 
the  socalled  world-spirit  forms  likewise  with  the  body  of  the 


12 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


world  an  undividable  whole,  and  that  of  this  whole 
mankind  forms  an  inseparable,  necessary  and  equally  entitled 
part.  But  on  this  the  question  just  depends.  If  the  power  or 
combination  of  powers,  which,  to  favor  you,  I  will  call  world- 
spirit,  has  perhaps  even  before  the  existence  of  the  human  race 
developed  and  selfconsciously  manifested  itself  upon  another 
part  of  the  world,  in  other  beings,  or  by  other  means,  this  can 
as  little  affect  us  as  if,  within  the  confines  of  mankind,  its  spirit 
had  sooner  become  conscious  in  Europe  than  in  Africa.  The 
Africans  are  therefore  just  as  well  men  as  we  are.  In  a  like 
manner  our  spirit  is  just  as  well  "world-spirit",  as  perhaps  that 
spirit,  which  upon  the  sun  or  elsewhere  is  active  and  may  have 
already  been  active  before  us.  Wether  we  call  this  "spirit", 
this  exhibition  of  power,  "God",  and  consequently  the  human 
spirit  godly,  or  wether  we  call  it  Man,  and  consequently  the 
god-spirit  human,  is  all  the  same.  The  name  is  of  no  account, 
and  I  only  object  to  the  name  Pantheism,  because  with  the  theo- 
logical term  there  is  always  connected  the  old  idea  of  a  particular, 
domineering,  mysterious  being,  that  annihilates  all  clear  views 
of  life  and  confuses  all  conceptions  of  right,  and  to  which  mankind 
is  brought  in  an  unequal,  dependent,  subordinate,  devotional, 
illegal,  humble,  unworthy,  debased,  obligatory,  sacrificing  re- 
lationship. I  would  also  not ^av ail  myself  of  the  word  Atheism 
(Non-God-belief),  if  I  could'  introduce  another  more  suitable 
term,  since  Atheism  is  something  merely  negative,  merely  ex- 
pressing opposition  to  something  not  existing.  A  living  being 
is  by  no  one  called  a  non-deceased  beiug,  but  simply  a  living 
being.  Thus  an  Atheist  should  merely  be  called,  perchance, 
a  world-man  or  in  short,  a  man  instead  of  an  unbeliever  or  infidel. 

If  a  "God",  as  I  have  said  above,  is  nothing  but  an  express- 
ion for  the  uncomprehended  cause  of  things,  then  an  Atheist  is 
nothing  but  a  friend  to  the  comprehension  of  that  cause.  This 
must  be  kept  in  view,  in  order  to  estimate  the  absurdity  of  those, 
who  would  debase  the  term  Atheism  to  an  epithet  of  disgrace. 
And  further  the  different  points  of  view  must  be  borne  in  mind, 
from  which  the  believers  fling  forth  this  word  as  fulmination. 
There  is  a  Catholic,  a  Protestant,  a  Mormon,  a  Quaker,  a 
Turkish,  an  Indian,  a  Chinese,  a  Russian,  a  New-Zealand 
"God",  in  short,  there  are  a  thousand  quite  different  "Gods", 
who  are  of  course  all  true  "Gods",  consequently  all 
Atheists  to  each  other,  not  to  speak  af  those  who  believe 
in  them.  In  which  of  all  these  gods  is  one  to  believe  in  order 
not  to  be  an  Atheist  ?  In  the  "true"  one  you  will  say,  and 
the  true  one  is  of  course  yours,  and  yours  is  your  imagination 
or  your  falsehood.  Then,  not  to  be  an  Atheist  I  must  believe 
in  you,  and  yet  you  are  (sit  venia  verbo  !)  a — blockhead  or  a 
hypocrite.  And  consequently,  not  to  be  an  Atheist,  I  must 
in  the  last  instance  believe  in  a  blockhead  or  a  hypocrite. 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


13 


IV. 

You  thus  perceive  that  I  can  not  imagine  or  accept  of  a 
personal,  apart  from  the  world  existing,  or  even  from  the 
world  and  mankind  separable  and  independent  being,  whom  you 
call  "God".  I  abstract  entirely  from  the  idea  as  from  the  name 
of  "God"  and  imagine  merely  a  World;  but  myself  with  my 
fellow  beings  (even  as  flowers,  animals  &c.)  I  conceive  as  parts 
and  expressions  of  this  world,  in  wich  it  developed  and  propa- 
gated its  life  ;  and  indeed,  as  the  acme  of  this  world-life  I  must 
recognize  the  socalled  spirit,  which  is  revealed  in  earthly  man- 
kind and,  according  to  my  supposition,  in  other  mankinds  on 
other  stars.  Above  the  spirit  of  Man  I  can  know  and  aknow- 
ledge  nothing,  since  that  which  I  know  and  comprehend,  is 
not  above  me,  and  that  which  I  do  not  comprehend,  does  not 
yet  exist  for  me.  All  that  exists  for  me  I  must  also  learn  to 
comprehend,  and  this  learning  to  comprehend  is  human  devel- 
opment, is  human  life,  is  the  road  to  human  happiness.  For 
mankind  there  is  no  higher  aim,  there  can  be  no  higher  aim, 
than  conscious  knowledge  and  happiness,  or  if  you  will,  mere 
happiness,  as  knowledge  forms  the  chief  part  and  the  real  worth 
of  happiness.  But  to  the  attainment  of  this  end  Man  will  be 
found  sufficiently  fitted  by  nature,  if,  or  as,  the  world  is 
sufficiently  fitted  to  the  attainment  of  its  end  and  Man  forms, 
at  his  place,  an  active  part,  a  chief  expression  of  the  same. 

In  thus  cutting  clear  from  my  conceptions  all  that  you  attach 
to  the  name  of  "God",  in  consequence  whereof  a  socalled  theo- 
logical world  no  longer  exists  for  me,  I  of  course  also  cut  off 
all  that  the  mind  of  Man  has  through  the  course  of  his  unde- 
fined development  attached  to  that  theological  world  ;  thus  all 
that  is  presumed  to  have  been  imparted  to  him  from  an  outward 
and  to  flow  back  from  him  to  a  particular  outward  source,  thus 
revealed  religion  and  immortality,  according  to  the  whilom 
conception.  If  no  "God"  exists  or  can  exist  beyond  mankind 
or  the*  world,  then  he  can  have  revealed  nothing  to  them  from 
beyond  ;  nothing  is  revealed  to  the  mind  of  Man  exept  that, 
which  he  d  e  v  e  1  o  p  e  s  out  of  himself  or  the 
w  o  r  1  d.  As  further  the  spirit  can  not  have  come  in  the  world 
from  beyond,  but  must  have  always  been  in  it,  thus  it  can  not 
return  to  a  "God"  from  whom  it  did  not  proceed  ;  therefore  it 
quietly  remains  in  the  world.  I  too  believe  in  immortality,  in  as 
much  as  I  believe  in  the  immortality  of  the  world.  But  in  a 
personal  continuance  of  Man  I  of  course  do  not  believe, 
neither  does  it  interest  me,  having  once  recognized  the  impossi- 
bility of  it.  Even  to  you  it  must  be  indifferent,  if  you  do  not 
straight-way  believe  in  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh  with  skin 
and  bones.  For  from  what  other  motive  would  you  wish  your 
existence  continued,  if  not  because  you  hope  to  continue,  after 


14 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN, 


death,  your  individual  life,  and  indeed,  if  possible,  with  other 
human  beings,  whose  individuality  is  endeared  to  you  ?  But 
what  forms  your  individuality  ?  Nothing  but  the  union  of  your 
flesh,  your  blood,  your  nerves  &c.  Dissolve  this  union,  destroy 
but  one  single  part  of  this  organic,  corporal  combination,  and 
the  product  of  the  same,  Reverend  N.  ,  is  likewise  vanished  or 
changed;  and  even  though  you  assume  a  separate  continu- 
ance of  the  spirit,  after  this  dissolution,  you  can  only  con- 
ceive this  "spirit"  as  perfectly  indifferent,  that  is,  provided  you 
do  not  reconnect  it  with  the  remaining  parts  of  your  personality. 
I  do  not  imagine  the  spirit  separate,  neither  in  Man  nor  in  the 
whole  World,  but  consider  it  as  not  without  existence,  and 
existence  not  without  life,  and  life  not  without  "matter "  and 
matter  again  not  without  life. 

But  this  is  Materialism !  you  will  exclaim.  Yes,  *it  is 
Materialism  !  "Materiatism"  in  a  like  manner  to  "Atheism" 
has  become  an  epithet  of  abuse,  which  is  applied  by  narrowmind- 
edness  and  illwill  to  that  which  they  do  not  understand,  or 
which  is  inconvenient  to  them.  I  maintain  that  in  the  world 
there  can  be  nothing  immaterial.  And  what  is  lost  by  it  ?  Is 
that  which  we  call  soul,  thought,  feeling  &c,  less  soul, 
thought,  feeling,  because  I  do  not  separate- them  from 
matter  ?  Would  you  have  the  perfume  of  the  flower  without 
the  flower  ?  Abusing  "Materialism"  is  the  most  stupid  thing 
in  the  world.  As  long  as  it  is  found  necessary  to  bring  the 
sensitive  and  material,  that  is,  the  existing  to  be  aknow- 
ledged  and  respected,  so  long  there  can  be  no  talk  of  a  general 
happiness  and  general  rationality.  As  long  as  people  need  the 
ghosts  of  things  instead  of  their  substance,  so  long  will  they 
bother  themselves  with  chimeras.  The  mind  is  nothing  but  the 
result  of  an  organic  combination  of  physical  powers.  The  whole 
world  is,  as  it  were,  a  chemical,  magnetical,  electrical  &c, 
laboratory,  in  which,  the  material  powers  (also  called  vital  pow- 
ers) consummate  their  unceasing  changes  and  transformations. 
Where  one  formation  ceases,  another  begins.  Even  the  corpse 
of  Man  lives  ;  but  this  is  no  longer  human  life,  it  is  only  the 
life  of  "anorganic"  Nature,  to  which  the  human  form,  after  its 
dissolution,  returns,  and  out  of  which  "organic"  Nature  repro- 
duces itself.  There  is  nothing  dead  in  the  world,  and  dying 
implys  only  a  retransformation  to  the  material  of  common  life. 
But  if  the  special  spirit,  which  is  the  subject  of  contest,  the 
spirit  of  a  single  human  being,  is  to  reappear,  there 
must  from  that  material,  by  way  of  generation  and  sustenance, 
an  organic  human  form  be  redeveloped  ;  and  how  you  are  to 
imagine  the  reproduction  of  all  the  millions  of  individual  human 
forms,  which  have  returned  to  that  material,  remains  with  your- 
self. Where  is  the  perfume  of  the  flower,  when  the  flower  is 
withered  ?    Where  is  the  spirit  of  Man,  when  Man  is  deceased  ? 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


15 


With  the  same  right,  wherewith  you  claim  a  resurrection  of 
Man,  I  might  claim  a  resurrection  of  the  flowers.  And  that 
animals  have  as  much  claim  to  your  "immortality"  as  yourself,  is 
a  matter  of  course. 

However,  the  desire  for  ressurrection  after  death  must  de- 
crease more  and  more,  in  proportion  as  mankind  learn  to 
properly  fill  out  their  lives,  to  rationally  outlive  themselves. 
If  they  do  this,  they  will  depart  from  Life  with  equanimity.  In 
sixty  years  a  man  can  live  and  experience  so  much,  that  he  is 
perfectly  satisfied,  provided  of  course,  that  mankind  have  erst 
humanely  arranged  theiy  social  relations.  Kow  the  fife  of  most 
men  is  but  a  continuation  of  troubles  and  tortures,  unnecessarily 
imposed  upon  them  by  their  fellow  beings.  When  erst  the 
despots,  the  priests,  the  bloodsuckers  are  done  away  with,  and 
the  conditions  of  a  truely  humane  life  are  secured  to  All,  then 
those,  who  must  take  leave  of  life  before  their  time,  without 
having  preenjoyed  their  "immortality",  without  having  humane- 
ly outlived  themselves,  will  belong  to  the  exceptions,  whilst 
now  they  form  the  generality. 

V. 

You  have  in  a  rather  unexpected  manner  conquered  yourself 
in  permitting  me,  at  least  briefly,  to  say,  what  in  the  main 
points  I  believe  and  do  not  believe,  although  you  perhaps  would 
not  have  had  the  tolerance  to  permit  my  more  fully  demonstra- 
ting the  acknowledgement  of  my  belief  in  opposition  to  the  whole 
of  yours.  Neither  will  this  be  requisite,  as  the  criticism  of  your 
Christianity  is  already  perfectly  exhausted.  You  now  ask  me 
what  I  have  in  reality  gained,  after  having  cut  off  your  "God", 
your  religion  and  immortality,  after  having  reduced  mankind 
and  the  world  to  itself  and  deprived  Man  of  the  prospect  of  a 
"better  life,,  ? 

What  I  have  gained  ?  Why,  all  that  I  need.  I  can  mean- 
while think  of  no  greater  benefit  to  mankind,  than  the  loss  of 
their  theological  ideas  and  that  what  they  understand  by  "relig- 
ion" and  "immortality".  Think  not,  that  I  treat  the  subject 
frivolously,  I  take  it  very  earnestly.  I  also  request  you  to 
coolly  overcome  for  a  time  your  fright  at  my  denial  of  "God" 
and  let  go  the  stupid  old-foggy  idea,  that  a  socalled  Atheist 
must  be  a  criminal  or  a  monster.  Such  an  idea  easily  attaches 
itself  to  all  that  appears  new  or  stands  alone.  But  your  Christ 
also  at  first  stood  alone,  and  yet  he  involuntarily  fulfilled  that 
which  was  his  historical  task,  namely  to  level  by  way  of  the 
feeling  the  terrain  of  the  vain  "universal  Love  of 
Man",  upon  which  reason  build  up  the  universal 
Rights  of  Man.  You  will  therefore  admit,  that  standing 
alone  forms  no  ground  of  argument,  and  you  must  know  that 


16 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


there  can  be  times,  when  a  single  human  being  forms  mankind. 
Do  not  estimate  the  worth  of  a  man  according  to  the  number 
of  his  company,  nor  the  worth  of  a  creed  according  to  the  number 
of  its  votaries.  Be  assured,  that  an  Atheist  can  mean  better 
towards  his  fellowman,  than  thousands  and  thousands  of  ado- 
rers of  "God",  yes,  that  he  must  mean  better,  because  he 
recognises  the  proper  individual  Rights  of  Man.  Let  me  now 
briefly  notice,  what  the  positive  result  of  my  negations  is. 

1.  The  belief  in  a  master  of  the  spirit  is  the  father  of  all 
bondage  ;  the  casting  off  of  this  belief  is  the  mother  of  all  spirit- 
ual freedom.  As  soon  as  the  mind  recognizes  a  master,  it  is  no 
longer  master  of  itself,  but  simply  becomes  the  servant  of  the 
phantasies  that  it  forms  about  such  a  master.  It  has  thereby 
properly  ceased  to  be  spirit,  for,  the  legitimation  of  the  mind 
consists  in  masterless,  in  free  recognition.  There  is  no  greater 
contradiction,  than  spirit  and  "God".  There  is  only  one  spirit; 
if  that  exists  above  mankind,  then  it  exists  not  i  n  mankind  ; 
but  if  it  exists  in  mankind,  then  mankind  can  not  be  subordinate 
to  it.  The  highest  in  mankind,  as  well  as  on  the  whole,  is  the 
spirit.  It  can,  so  to  express  myself,  be  divided  into  different 
quantities,  but  qualitatively  it  must  be  of  the  same  kind. 
If  there  were  two  qualitatively  different  spirits,  the  one  would 
know  nothing  of  the  other,  would  stand  in  no  relation  to  the 
other,  consequently,  exist  always  only  for  itself.  Whoever  does 
not  aknowledge  this,  renounces  his  spirit  in  order  to  make  him- 
self the  slave  of  something,  which  is,  at  all  events,  foreign  to 
his  spirit.  Whoever  renounces  but  a  hair's  bredth  of  his  spirit, 
destroys  it  at  the  same  time,  delivers  himself  up,  is  slave  of  him, 
who  takes  advantage  of  his  spiritlessness.  And  in  as  much  as 
believing  Man  the  bearer  of  the  spirit,  which  as  of  a  higher 
kind,  as  nonhuman,  he  places  above  himself,  can  ever  imagine 
but  a  M  a  n  and  acknowledge  one  of  his  fellow  men,  so  in  prac- 
tice the  god-belief  becomes  slavish  belief  and  god- worship  but 
priest-worship. 

2.  If  mankind  turn  their  eyes  from  a  being  and  a  world, 
which  exist  not,  and  cast  them  upon  themselves  and  the 
actual  world,  they  will  learn  to  recognize  their  position,  their 
task,  their  worth,  and  direct  their  care  to  themselves  alone. 
They  will  learn  to  perceive,  that  they  are  an  entitled,  a  highly 
entitled  part  of  the  world  and  not  an  unentitled  race,  who  exist 
merely  by  charity,  having  to  thank  for,  or  even  sacrifice  their 
right  of  happiness  to  an  imaginary  "Lord".  They  will  learn 
to  recognize  themsslves  as  their  own  Lord  and  their  own  aim. 
They  will  learn  to  direct  their  endeavors  solely  to  their  happi- 
ness, when  they  have  unlearnt  to  look  at  unhappiness  as 
their  highest  obligation  ;  they  will  learn  to  seek  their  happi- 
ness here,  when  they  perceive,  that  it  is  never  and 
nowhere  else  to  be  found.    They  will  learn  to  recog- 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN* 


17 


nize,  that  it  is  folly  and  crim  e  to  neglect  a  happiness  which 
has  its  source  only  in  themselves,  and  that  this  crime  may  cease, 
they  will  make  of  human  happiness  a  common  human  cause; 
they  will  learn  to  have  a  solidary  care  for  human 
happiness.  They  will  learn  to  hold  together  after  they  have 
recognized,  that  they  are  confined  to  themselves,  and  they  will 
consciously  strive  towards  their  designation  as  soon  as  the  circle 
of  their  consciousness  circumscribes  them  in  discernable  proximity, 
and  the  misty  sphere  of  phan'tastic  conceptions  is  vanished. 
They  will  make  that  which  you  call  Christian  Love,  to  Truth, 
and  Christian  Love  will  be  transformed  to  actual  Love  of  Man. 
They  will  direct  love  to  themselves,  the  love  which  above  all 
you  would  have  transferred  to  an  unapproachable  being,  a  being, 
to  whom,  if  he  could  exist,  such  love  must  evidently  be  very  in- 
different. 

3.  When  the  belief  in  a  "God"  has  ceased,  every  obligation, 
which  yon  would  impose  on  Man  towards  "God",  will  also  cease, 
and  only  the  duty  of  Man  towards  Man  will 
remain.  Morality  will  be  simplified,  and  partially  quite 
transformed  ;  theological  morality  will  become  human 
morality.  This  morality  will  no  longer  know  any  other  duty 
than  that  which  one  human  being  has  to  fulfil  towards  another  ; 
the  common  Rights  of  Man  will  be  recognized  as  the 
source  of  these  duties,  and  in  the  nonfulfilment  of  these  duties, 
the  expedient  of  appealing  or  referring  to  "higher  duties"  will 
be  entirely  cut  off.  No  socalled  higher  duty  can  further  come 
in  collision  with  the  duties  towards  fellow  men,  as  little  as  a  so- 
called  higher  right  can  come  in  collision  with  the  rights  of  Man. 
Neither  a  despot  nor  a  priest  may  longer  appeal  to  the  "gracs" 
and  the  "will  of  God",  when  depriving  men  of  their  equal  rights 
and  plundering  and  misleading  them  to  other  ends  than  those 
which  stand  prescribed  on  the  way  of  their  human  happiness  ; 
the  theological  order  of  rank  among  mankind,  by  which  some 
are  raised  like  demi-"godly"  beings  in  an  artificial  nimbus  above 
others,  will  be  deprived  of  its  fundament  and  fall  together.  Is 
that  debasing  culture  of  human  gods,  called  majesties,  anything 
else  but  a  reflection  of  the  god-belief  ?  Does  not  the  oppression 
and  the  degradation  of  the  god-belief  transplant  itself  from  the 
man  at  Rome  as  well  as  from  the  man  at  St.  Petersburg  and 
all  the  other  masjesterial  set,  through  all  grades  of  society  down 
to  the  sexton  and  the  body-guard  ?  Does  the  degradation  of 
European  peoples  rest  virtually  on  another  foundation  than,  for 
instance,  the  degradation  of  the  Chinese  ?  Is  not  the  political 
as  well  as  the  social  life  of  the  whole  civilized  world  still  im- 
pregnated and  corrupted  with  the  fictions  and  debasements  of 
theology  ?  Is  theology  not  the  means  by  which  everywhere  one 
part  of  mankind  outwardly  elevates  itself  above  Man  in  order 
to  degrade  the  other  part  below  Man?    Would  there  be  an 


18 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


emperor  of  Russia,  if  there  were  not  an  imperial  Russian  Lord- 
God  ?  Would  the  people  cover  themselves  with  the  ignominy  of 
sacrificing  their  freedom  and  happiness  to  such  a  man,  if  they 
had  destroyed  the  nimbus  in  which  he  exists  and  sanctifies  him- 
self? This  whole  edifice  of  human  degradation  must  and  will  be 
hurled  assunder.  The  old  puppet  show  of  thousands  of  years, 
with  its  whole  superstructure  and  appurtenance,  in  which  the 
high  puppets,  called  Majesties,  Holinesses,  Eminencies,  Excel- 
lencies &c,  are  strung  up  on  "  godly"  threads,  and  to  the  pro- 
longing of  their  comedian  existence  press  from  the  people  the 
slave-tax  of  sacrificing  admiration,  must  and  will  tumble  to- 
gether. 

If  there  were  only  one  single  human  being  in  the  world,  could 
this  one  human  being  commit  evil  deeds  ?  In  no  wise,  because 
he  could  injure  the  rights  of  no  other  human  being  or  misuse  him 
to  ends  contrary  to  humanity.  Towards  trees  and  stones  evil 
deeds  are  not  committed ;  only  in  the  relationship  of  one  human 
being  to  another  are  vile  acts  possible.  Consequently,  h  u  - 
man  morality  is  nothing  but  the  law  ofmu- 
tualrespectfortheRights  of  Man.  Man,  perhaps, 
might  be  i  m  m  o  r  a  1  for  himself,  as  far  as  immoral  implies  an 
injury  to  reason  and  human  feeling,  an  insult  to  the  h  o  n  o  r  of 
Man.  Free,  spontaneous  direction  from  the  one,  but  free 
self-government  from  the  other  side,  is  the  right  and  the  left  of 
morality  ;  and  the  command  of  that  self-government  consists 
with  the  individual  man  in  the  regard  for  his  reason  and  his 
human  honor,  besides,  in  relationship  to  others,  it  consists  in 
the  respect  for  the  common  Rights  of  Man.  In  all  that  does 
not  infringe  on  this  command,  Man  is  perfectly  free,  and  this  is 
the  crown  of  his  existence. 

4.  As  morality  is  no  longer  attached  to  an  imaginary  being, 
to  whom  are  ascribed  all  sorts  of  unnatural  demands,  the  com- 
mand of  Nature  will  thus  be  emancipated  and  the  road  to 
happiness  freed  of  all  those  hinderances,  which  consist  in  some- 
thing apart  from  the  regard  for  fellow  beings  and  human  honor. 
As  soon  as  morality  is  reduced  to  the  basis  of  human  rights, 
"  e  v  i  1  "  will  only  yet  consist  in  the  degeneration  of 
human  egotism  which  turns  itself  against 
fellow  beings;  and  that  mysterious  evil,  that 
evil  for  itself,  whichhas  caused  you  and  those 
of  your  kind  so  much  trouble,  and  with  which 
you  have  so  long  worried  human  nature,  is 
abolished.  The  art  to  make  "evil"  of  that  which  is  ne- 
cessary and  natural,  has  thereby  also  ceased.  Recollect,  in 
order  to  arrive  at  clearness  upon  the  subject,  but  the  renowned 
fall  of  your  forefather  Adam.  If  you  will  be  candid,  you  must 
admit,  that  in  reality  there  is  nothing  else  to  be  understood  by 
this  fall,  but  the  sexual  act,  by  which  Adam  and  Eve  (these 


SIX  L  ETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN, 


19 


persons  accepted  as  first  parents)  laid  the  foundation  of  their 
posterity.  Now  ask  yourself,  wherefore  and  how  far  this  act 
could  have  been  a  sin  ?  Without  that  fall,  the  good  Adam 
could  not  have  put  the  posterity,  who  are  said  to  have  inherited 
from  him  the  sin  of  procreation,  into  the  world.  Should  he  not, 
in  order  to  have  avoided  that  fall,  have  dispensed  with  the  pos- 
terity, to  the  advantage  of  whom  this  avoidance  should  be  ? 
Is  it  not  the  grandest  absurdity  for  this  posterity  to  desire,  that 
their  forefather  should  have  made  them  without  making  them  ? 
And  does  not  the  stamp  of  this  nonsense,  this  immoral  morality, 
which  with  its  harpyian  filth  pollutes  even  Love,  the  fairest 
relation  of  human  life,  imprint  itself,  even  yet  today,  upon  the 
conceptions  of  millions  of  fearful  believers,  who,  at  the  command 
of  their  priests,  were  capable  of  perceiving  a  "Sin"  even  in 
their  eating  and  drinking,  yea,  even  in  their  very  existence  ? 
What  confidence  and  what  pride  can  he  have  in  mankind,  who 
ascribes  its  origin  to  a  sin  ?  By  this  single  conception,  the  whole 
world  and  all  life  is,  to  the  believer,  already  empoisoned. 
Therefore  are  such  contemptible  doctrines  actual  moral  poisoning. 
Aye,  pious  man,  it  is  perfect  desecration,  to  brand  mankind 
with  the  stamp  of  sinfulness,  in  order  to  win,  for  gold  and  ser- 
vility, the  merit  of  its  purification.  From  this  example  you  may 
comprehend  wither  it  leads,  if  one  convert  the  gross  fables  of  a 
childish,  to  the  dogmas  of  an  advanced  world,  and  make  "Sin" 
the  cloak  for  want  of  knowledge  or  the  means  of  speculation. 
But  the  source  of  all  these  errors  and  futilities  is  the  belief  in  a 
"God",  in  which  Man  transplaces  his  follies  and  his  passions, 
first  to  make  them  "holy",  and  then  tyrannize  others  with  them. 
You  will  know,  that  the  "fall  of  Adam"  is  not  the  only  absurd- 
ity and  inhumanity  distinguished  by  your  theological  moral. 
But  human  morality  does  not  think  of  gaging  and  disforming 
Nature  ;  it  rather  makes  her  the  law,  under  the  supervision  of 
the  common  Rights  of  Man  and  human  honor  (reason)  which 
she  adorns  with  the  crown  of  Beauty. 

5.  As  morality  only  yet  consists  in  the  command  of  respect 
for  the  rights  and  dignity  of  Man,  thus  immorality  will 
only  consist  in  the  infringement  of  these 
rights  and  dignity  of  Man.  Those  will  consequently 
be  the  worst  men,  who  curtail  the  rights  or  the  means  of  happi- 
ness to  their  fellow  men  and  degrade  them  to  means  for  selfish 
purposes.  Henceforth  "sinners"  will  be  sought  elsewhere  than 
hitherto.  The  "egotists"  will  be  the  greatest  sinners,  and  those 
will  be  the  greatest  egotists,  who,  on  account  of  their  personal 
interests,  rob  the  greatest  number  of  human  beings  of  their 
rights  and  means  of  happiness.  But  human  rights  and  the 
means  of  human  happiness  consist  in  liberty  and  the  proportion- 
ate division  of  the  goods  of  this  earth.  Whoever  robs  us  of 
freedom  and  curtails  our  means  of  human  existence  and  human 


20 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


happiness,  commits  the  highest  crime  there  can 
b  e  ;  he  is  an  enemy  to  mankind  and  the  friendship  of  "God" 
can  no  longer  rescue  him.  A  "higher"  tribunal  no  longer  speaks 
him  free,  and  we  alone  form  the  tribunal,  who  judge  him. 
Look  around  in  your  circle,  count  the  number  of  your  pious 
enemies  of  freedom,  and  you  will  be  affrighted  at  the  piles  of 
,  acts  of  endictments,  which  arise  at  the  moment  when  theologi- 
cal morals  are  abolished  and  human  morals  introduced.  You 
will  be  appalled  at  the  number  of  those,  who  hitherto  in  the 
name  and  under  the  protection  of  "God"  have  oppressed,  mis- 
used, plundered,  enslavec],  tortured,  murdered  their  fellow  beings, 
and  in  short,  swindled  them  of  Life  and  the  aims 
of  Man.  You  will  recognize  that  the  colossal,  and  at  the 
same  time  "legitimate"  crimes  of  these  enemies  of  mankind, 
measured  according  to  the  usual  criminal  code,  must  call  down 
a  frightful  judgement  upon  their  heads.  At  the  thought  of  them; 
I  see  the  sin-scale  in  the  hand  of  Themis  spring  sky-high  into 
the  air,  and  all  the  guillotines  of  the  world  begin  to  tremble. 
But  not  in  vain  does  Themis  bear  her  scales,  as  little  as  her 
sword,  and  she  will  hold  her  day  of  judgement.  On  this  dread- 
ful day  all  the  criminals  against  mankind,  who  thought  they 
could  authorize  and  save  themselves  by  a  "God",  will  be  dealt 
with.  Was  there  ever  a  criminal,  a  villain,  a  tyrant,  ever  a 
bandit  great  or  small,  whose  legitimation  and  support  was  not 
called  "God"?  "God"  grasped  in  the  pockets  of  the  oppressed, 
"God"  sucked  them  to  their  very  blood,  "God"  threw  them  into 
dungeons,  "God"  swang  the  scourge  of  the  jailor,  "God"  guid- 
ed the  stroke  of  executioner,  "God"  was  the  commissioner,  the 
patron,  the  reserve,  the  deputy,  the  agent,  was  the  consecrator 
of  all  villainies,  all  perjuries,  all  robberies,  all  revengefullness, 
all  deeds  af  blood  and  of  all  bestiality  and  horrors,  that  ever 
were  committed.  In  India  there  are  hereditary  bandits  versed 
expressly  in  the  art  of  strangulation,  who  commit  vast  numbers 
of  the  most  frightful  murders.  Before  court  they  seek  to  justi- 
fy themselves  as  having  been  appointed  to  their  business  by 
"providence",  and  that  they  are  but  tools  in  the  hands  of  "God". 
And  exactly  so  do  the  hereditary,  benign  bandits'  with  crown 
and  tiara,  who  let  whole  nations  be  trodden  under  foot,  plun- 
dered and  butchered  by  armies  of  murderers  and  executioners 
in  the  name  of  "God".  A  day  will  come,  when  this  abominable 
"God"  will  drown  in  the  blood  of  his  abominable  proteges,  who 
have  invented  him  as  a  means  of  deception  and  as  the  protector 
of  crime.  There  will  come  an  actual  "day  of  judgement",  when 
all  human  beings  will  arise  and  all  unhuman  beings  will  tumble 
in  the  pit,  and  for  this  day,  pious  man,  you  also  may  tremble. 

To  men  of  faith  it  will  gradually  become  clear,  wherefore  their 
pious  enemies  are  so  zealously  devoted  to  bringing  them  up  in 
the  "fear  of  God",  making  them  what  is  called  religious,  and 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


sustaining  them  in  the'  belief  of  a  "better  life"  ;  it  will  become 
clear  to  them,  why  just  in  the  worst  States  and  by  the  worst 
governments  "God"  and  "religion"  are  the  most  put  under 
the  protection  of  the  police,  and  why  just  those  are  persecuted 
by  despots  and  priests  with  dungeon  and  bans,  whose  aim  it  is 
to  humanize  Man  and  free  him  from  the  dependence  on  a  tyran- 
nizing belief  in  mysterious  powers,  in  the  name  of  which  by 
their"  earthly  representatives,  he  is  robbed  of  his  happiness  and 
dignity  ;  it  will  become  clear  to  them,  that  with  the  belief  in 
those  powers  the  floor  will  be  drawn  from  under  the  feet  of 
their  pretended  representatives  also,  and  that,  as  long  as 
this  floor  is  secure,  all  struggle  against  des- 
pots as  well  as  against  priests,  against  the 
oppressors  of  nations  as  well  as  againstJes- 
uits,  will  remain  fruitless,  as  not  touching 
attherootofthe  evil.  It  is  lamentable,  reverend 
father,  to  see  how  you  and  your  collegues  are  attacked  from  all 
corners,  whilst  at  the  same  time  the  field,  wherein  the  weeds 
grow,  is  zealously  worked,  fructuated  and  protected.  But 
so  it  yet  is  in  the  world,  that  the  obedience  of  believers  may 
occasionally  be  enforced  by  the  thread  of  freeing  them 
from  the  oppression  against  which  they  rebel ! 
Do  we  not  yet  daily  experience,  that  when  a  congregation  gets 
into  a  quarrel  with  its  pastor,  the  oxen  permit  themselves  to  be 
decoyed  by  their  shepherd  locking  up  the  stable  of  the  Church, 
for  which  they  themselves  have  paid,  and  then  retiring  pouting- 
ly  like  a  monarch,  who  chastizes  his  residence  with  his  displeas- 
ure ?  Why  does  it  not  enter  the  mind  of  any  of  these  congre- 
gations, to  let  their  pouting  pastor  go  as  he  pleases,  or  chase 
him  to  the  devil ;  in  any  case  show  him,  that  they  can  live 
without  him  and  his  church,  and  that  without  him  they  find 
themselves  much  better  off  than  before.  The  answer  to  this 
question  is  easily  found  ;  you,  reverend  father,  and*  your  col- 
legues are  consequential  and  "wise",  but  your  congregations 
condemn  themselves  to  eternal  imbecility  and  stupidity. 

6.  The  belief  in  "God"  has  hitherto  been  the  seed  of  all 
slashing  discord  among  men.  The  different  modes  of  worship- 
ping an  imaginary  being  has  caused  more  war  and  destruction 
among  mankind,  than  all  the  differences  of  egotistical  interests. 
With  the  belief  in  "God"  the  basis  of  all  religious  enmity  vanish- 
es, and  in  its  place  arises  the  basis  of  human  equality 
and  of  universal  peace.  All  wars  have  grown  upon  two  kinds 
of  ground :  upon  the  political  ground  the  "kingly"  subjects 
combated  for  their  earthly,  and  upon  the  religious  ground  the 
"godly"  subjects  combated  for  their  heavenly  despots.  And  as 
upon  the  political  field  the  bond  of  nations  is  founded  by  the 
annihilation  of  majesty  and  subjectdom,  thus,  by  the  annihila- 


22 


SIX  LETTEKS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


tion  of  god-majesty  and  beliefdoni  upon  the  religious  domain, 
is  founded  the  bond  of  humanity. 

VI. 

After  having  briefly  heard  what  I  have  won  by  the  renunci- 
ation of  the  belief  in  "God"  &c,  you  will  also  wish  to  know, 
how  I  intend  replacing  that  which  is  pretended  to  have  thus 
been  lost.  I  must  openly  declare  to  you,  that  this  request 
appears  to  me  somewhat  childish,  as  I  find  it  difficult  to  recon- 
sider all  those  presuppositions  of  a  belief,  which  I  have  so  long 
and  so  totally  outgrown  ;  yet  to  favour  you,  I  will  enter  upon 
a  few  of  the  main  points,  as  I  do  not  resign  the  hope,  that  at 
least  some  interest  in  Truth  will  be  at  the  bottom  of  youp  quest- 
ions. You  fear,  that  "inward  contentment  "  will  be  lost.  But 
I  maintain,  that  it  will  be  secured.  Accept  of  it  as  an  uncon- 
trovertable  law,  that  he,  who  is  capable  of  arriving  at  know- 
ledge, is  also  capable  of  bearing  it.  But  not  only  this.  The 
more  knowledge,  and  the  more  regulated  it  is,  the  more  and 
securer  will  be  the  contentment.  As  long  as  I  was  still  divided 
between  the  belief,  wherein  I  was  brought  up,  of  another  world 
with  its  pretended  "Lord",  and  the  penetrating  doubts  of  my 
reason,  I  experienced  a  perfect  martyrdom  of  soul ;  since  I  have 
beaten  a  clear  path  through  the  domains,  which  gave  birth  to 
my  doubts,  I  have  become  something  whole  ;  I  have  become  a 
man  firmly  settled  in  myself  and  contented,  so  far  as  Man  ever 
strugling  for  clearer  knowledge  can  and,  I  would  say,  d  a  r  e  be. 
Believe  me,  there  is  more  solid  ground  for  contentment  in  the 
consciousness  of  being  an  entitled,  selfsubsisting  member  of  the 
whole  great  world,  advancing  independent  of  all  arbitration 
freely  along  the  road  of  the  immovable  laws  of  Nature,  than  in 
the  belief  of  following  in  blind  dependence  an  incomprehensible 
power,  and  indeed  unto  an  end,  whereof  no  believer  can  have 
a  conception.  But  this  consciousness  will  become  the  firmer  a 
basis  of  contentment,  the  more  generally  it  penetrates  mankind, 
the  more  mankind  in  themselves  are  supported  by  it,  the  more 
they  reciprocally  bear  themselves.  It  is  not 
sufficient,  that  an  individual  is  in  harmony  with  himself,  he 
must  also  find  harmony  in  his  relations  to  his  fellow  beings.  Now 
the  inimical  attacks  of  those,  thinking  differently,  are  already 
sufficient  to  embitter  the  contentment,  many  a  one  has  found  in 
knowledge.  Whoever,  compelled  by  the  law  of  his  reason  and 
with  the  purest  motive,  is  striving  to  free  men  from  their  false 
conceptions  and  direct  them  to  their  true  position,  will  indeed, 
when  all  around  he  sees  his  endeavors  arrested  by  the  appre- 
hension and  persecution  of  those,  for  whom  he  labors,  have  to 
consider  his  personal  happiness  as  a  secondary  affair,  un- 
less he  find  it  alone  in  the  consciousness  and  possession  of  Truth. 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN* 


23 


When  he  has  rid  himself  of  all,  that  supports  the  common  man 
in  his  afflictions,  and  now  instead  of  those  sought  men,  to  whom 
he  would  transfer  all  stay  and  consolation,  sees  but  enemies  be- 
fore him;  if  he  no  longer  has  a  "God"  and  now  also  finds  no 
Man;  if  he  set  all  and  all  upon  mankind  and  only  meets  with 
such  as  are  too  stupid  to  comprehend  him,  or  too  egotistical  to 
do  him  justice ;  then,  indeed,  he  must  have  brought  his  views 
of  life  and  character  to  an  elevation,  whereupon  he  is  inaccess- 
ible to  all  temptations  of  enervating  imbecility  and  reserved 
melancholy.  It  is  not  every  man's  business,  to  go  through 
such  trials.  The  most  rather  become  hypocrites,  leaving  an 
open  acknowledgement  be  for  times,  when  sufficient  security  for 
the  free  expression  of  the  same  will  have  been  obtained  by  the 
struggles  of  others.  It  is,  however,  a  matter  of  course,  that 
this  standing  alone  ond  subject  to  assailment  is  a  position,  which 
must  be  occupied  and  borne  by  some,  even  though  personal 
misfortune  really  be  their  fate.  It  will  then  at  least  be  recog- 
nized, that  the  source  of  such  misfortune  lies  not  in  the  doctrine 
taught,  but  in  the  inhumanity  of  those,  who  miscomprehend 
and  persecute  the  same.  But  persecution,  and  again  persecu- 
tion, pious  man  !  The  fear  of  this  persecution  alone  it  is,  which 
prevents  thousands  from  trusting  themselves  to  better  convic- 
tions. Most  men  fear  nothing  more,  than  making  an  acknow- 
ledgement of  that  which  would  do  them  most  honor.  Is  this 
not  strange  ?  Not  the  ridiculous  fear  of  the  tortures  of  hell, 
the  day  of  judgement,  and  such  like  nonsense,  but  the  fear  of 
those  who  believe  in  such  godly  absurdities,  or  hypocritically 
speculate  with  this  belief,  it  is,  which  prevents  thousands  from 
forsaking  the  ranks  of  the  "faithful".  And  this  is,  what  you 
call  contentment  ?  From  my  heart  I  pity  those  poor  "Content- 
ed", who  in  the  eternal  fear  of  their  "God"  and  their  fellow- 
beings  keep  an  account  of  "Sins",  they  do  not  commit,  and  hold 
those,  which  they  commit,  for  virtues.  Be  assured,  that  pro- 
gressing mankind  will  not  miss  a  "God",  when  it  is  once  no 
longer  educated  with  the  belief  in  him,  and  that  the  more  it 
will  have  learned  to  seek  the  source  of  contentment  within  itself, 
the  more  contented  will  it  be.  It  will,  indeed,  be  long  before 
mankind  in  general  have  so  far  progressed  ;  for  you  and  your 
likes  have  in  all  directions  so  peopled  the  world  with  such 
images  of  terror,  that  a  whole  ocean  of  the  Lethe  waters  of  a 
better  knowledge  must  be  consumed,  before  they  are  all  for- 
gotten. Your  "God"  you  have  made  the  appari- 
tion of  the  whole  world,  and  your  belief  is 
nothingbutauniversalbeliefinapparitions. 
Yes,  in  relation  to  mankind,  "God"  is  for  you,  as  it  were,  the 
police  chief  of  the  world  and  your  morals  nothing  but  "godly" 
fear  of  police.  And  with  the  belief  in  hobgoblins,  and  by  fear 
of  police,  you  would  lead  mankind,  endowed  with  reason  and 


24 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN, 


born  to  freedom,  to  contentment  ?  If  I  were  not  forced  to  pity 
you,  there  would  nought  remain  for  me,  but  to  detest  you. 

On  the  other  hand,  you  are  of  the  opinion,  that  the  unfortu- 
nate and  the  weak  would  lose  their  last  stay  as  soon  as  they  are 
deprived  of  their  faith  in  a  "heavenly  father".  But  asside  from 
other  things,  you  must  consider,  that  as  mankind  withdraws 
from  this  belief  to  itself,  it  also  makes  corresponding  advances 
in  science  and  in  the  endeavors  to  lessen  the  misfortune,  to  which 
that  belief  is  to  serve  as  a  support.  If  we  but  erst  come  to  gen- 
erally possess  the  means  of  happiness,  namely  freedom  and  a 
title  to  the  goods  of  this  earth,  then  a  great  number  of  those, 
who  in  need  and  oppression  are  referred  to  another  world,  will 
have  vanished,  and  they  will  rest  more  contented  in  the  lap  of 
mankind  than  in  "Abraham's  lap".  Do  but  recognize,  that 
mankind  itself  it  is  that  creates  the  unhappiness,  to  the  endu- 
rance of  which  it  takes  refuge  in  an  imaginary  world.  But  if 
unavoidable  and  undeserved  misfortune,  which  happens  and  al- 
ways will  happen  to  the  individual,  be  spoken  of,  then  again  it 
is  mankind  that  consoles  and  repairs  the  same  as  far  as  it  can, 
and  such  a  reparation  of  human  love,  which  to  a  fellow-being  is 
guarantied  by  an  imperative  right,  by  the 
right  of  reason,  and  not  adjudged  to  him  by 
humorsome  excitement  of  feeling,  is,  I  should 
think,  something  more  real  and  effectual,  than  the  vague  belief 
in  a  reparation  after  death  through  an  unknown  being. 

How  little  true  human  love,  in  spite  or  on  account  of  refer- 
ring to  "higher"  instances,  has  gained  footing  and  has  effected, 
may  be  seen  by  the  state  of  human  rights.  Do  you  not 
at  all  ends  and  at  all  corners  hear  love  preached  by  weakheads 
and  scoundrels,  whilst  they  carry  on  or  approve  of  the  abroga- 
tion of  human  rights  in  millions  of  individuals  ?  Has  not  socall- 
ed  human  love  hitherto  been  the  hidden  enemy  of  human  rights, 
of  which  it  should  be  the  realization  or  the  precedent  ?  What 
is  human  love  without  securement  of  human 
rights?  A  lie,  a  detestable  and  Man -murderous  lie,  the 
most  desecrated  lie  of  the  whole  world.  But  this  lie  will  be 
destroyed  as  soon  as  mankind  returns  to  itself.  We  will  and 
must  arrive  at  another  love,  than  the  confused,  sickly,  sorrowful, 
weakly,  sentimental,  or  even  perfidous  belief-love,  which  either 
consists  in  fruitless  words,  or  exagerated  itself  in  ascetism,  or 
as  disguised  lovelessness  makes  Man  unhappy.  We  must  have 
a  fresh  love,  a  love  become  life  and  flesh,  a  love  proceeding  from 
free  consciousness,  based  upon  solid  ground,  and  which  is  the 
expression  of  the  common  feeling  of  the  rights  and  duties  of 
human  society  footed  in  itself.  Can  there  be  a  greater  and  a 
truer  love  of  Man;  than  that  which  would  have  all  just  desires 
of  all  men  brought  to  acknowledgment  and  realization?  But 
not  thus  does  the  Christian,  only  the  purely  human,  the  Athe- 


SIX  LETTEKS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


25 


istical  love  of  Man,  which  flings  off  all  nonhuman  views  and 
duties,  and  will,  as  socalled  "Socialism",  reconstruct  society. 
Mankind  will  not  become  really  humane  in 
its  aims,  until  it  becomes  really  humane  in 
its  conceptions.  All  non-human,  consequently  all  the- 
ological views  are  contrary  to  humanity,  are  from  the  bottom 
inhuman,  and  can  only  lead  to  inhumanities.  To  pretend 
to  be  "humane"  in  the  name  or  with  the  idea  of  a  "God"  is  to 
pretend  to  be  free  in  the  name  or  with  the  idea  of  a  despot. 
But  if  all  theological  phantastry  be  cut  off  from  mankind,  that 
is,  if  nothing  be  imagined  above  it,  which  exists  not,  then  will 
Man  erst  become  humanly  free  and  purely  human,  will  learn  to 
respect  Man  as  such,  ascribe  to  him  no  fictious  "Evil"  and 
" Sinfulness",  and  make  him  his  own  Master,  Ideal,  and  Aim. 
That  which  is  sacrificed  to  "God",  is  wit  held 
from  mankind.  Sacrifice  the  "God",  and  the  Man  is 
won.  Only  by  letting  go  the  belief  in  "G  o  d"  is 
that  attained,  which  through  that  belief  it 
was  hoped  would  be  obtained. 

Therefore  do  not  be  anxious,  that  in  assailing  your  theologi- 
cal human  love,  I  have  a  love  in  sight,  which  in  reality  amounts 
to  the  same.  I  will  even  acknowledge  to  you,  that  the  love, 
which  I  mean,  is  little  or  not  at  all  founded  upon  actual  sacri- 
fice, but  upon  egotism  ;  not  upon  undefined  feeling,  but  upon 
cool  understanding.  Only  upon  this  ground  does  it  prove  some- 
thing firm  and  durable.  A  real  love  I  only  know  of  in  the 
relations  of  single  persons  ;  a  general  human  1  o  v  e  I  know  not. 
And  yet  I  preach  it  ?  And  yet,  after  having  combated  and 
accused  others  of  egotism,  I  would  make  egotism  a  maxim  ? 
Aye,  egotism  is  the  soul  of  the  world.  It  is  the  first  necessity, 
it  is  Life.  Can  you  imagine  a  man,  who  has  no  idea  of  himself, 
who  works  not  for  himself,  who  proceeds  not  from  himself,  who 
acts  not  according  to  h  i  s  motives,  and  yet  lives  ?  I  can  not. 
He  would  be  a  stone  and  not  a  man.  Consequently  egotism  is 
the  basis  of  existence,  it  is  existence  itself.  But  since  I  acknow- 
ledge this  for  my  person,  I  am,  by  force  of  reason,  absolutely 
obliged,  to  acknowledge  it  likewise  for  my  fellow-beings, 
who  stand  to  me  in  homogenous  and  equally  entitled  relation- 
ship. Reason,  that  tells  me  this,  proclaims  to  me  further,  that 
according  to  its  nature  it  cannot  be  satisfied,  until  each  single 
egotism  has  attained  its  righteous  validity  and  realization.  If 
upon  this  motive  alone  I  found  my  human  love,  it  is  more  firmly 
based  than  upon  your  "godly"  commands.  This  motive  tells 
me  :  "That  which  you  would  have  done  or  left  unto  you,  that 
shall,  that  must  you  likewise  do  or  leave  unto  others,  if  you 
would  not  by  your  reason  and  conviction  be  condemned  as  a 
barbarian  and  as  unworthy".  Your  bible  indeed  says  some- 
thing similar,  but  with  you  it  is  only  the  expression  of  a  vague 


26 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


"love",  which,  without  the  establishment  of  equal  common 
rights,  has  no  substance  aud  is  subservient  to  the  whim  of 
the  moment  or,  under  circumstances,  turns  its  back  upon  the 
beloved  fellow  being.  Your  love  says  at  the  same  time  :  Render 
unto  Caesar  the  things,  which  are  Caesar's  ;  but  nowhere  does 
it  say  :  Render  unto  Man  the  things  wThich  are  Man's,  namely 
his  equal  common  right  to  freedom  and  happiness.  Now,  I 
would  render  nothing  unto  "Caesar"  as  little  as  unto  "God" 
and  his  servants  ;  but  unto  Man  I  would  render  All.  Thus  I 
would  completely  satisfy  his  egotism,  on  condition,  that  he  would 
concede  the  same  to  the  egotism  of  each  one  of  his  fellow  beings. 
This  is  true  egotism  and,  at  the  same  time,  true  love  of  Man. 
I  make  each  human  being  an  egotist,  but  I  dispute  his  right  of 
tresspassing  on  the  province  of  another's  egotism. 

I  thus  leave  each  one  the  liberty,  that  I  would  have  myself  ; 
and  as  those  single  liberties  come  to  an  understanding  upon  a 
moral  basis  with  each  other,  a  moral,  a  human  condition  is 
originated.  I,  for  instance,  can  not  feel  myself  happy  in  loving 
a  woman,  who  does  not  love  me  ;  I  can  have  no  man  for  my 
friend,  who  at  the  same  time  would  be  my  servant ;  I  can  not 
wish  to  exert  power  over  my  fellow  beings,  if  they  do  not  vo- 
luntarily transfer  this  power  to  me  for  common  ends  ;  I  can  not 
feel  myself  happy  in  affluence,  whilst  seeing  my  equally  entitled 
fellow  beings  in  misery  ;  I  can  not  rejoice  in  my  freedom,  when 
I  behold  my  fellow  Man  in  slavery.  I  must  see  them  likewise 
happy,  likewise  free  and  if  it  were  merely  on  account  of  my 
own  person.  My  egotism  will  so  have  it,  must  so 
have  it.  Or  is  Reason  with  its  demands  not  to  be  considered 
as  belonging  to  Man,  not  to  the  person,  not  to  egotism  ?  Shall 
only  my  stomach  have  wants  and  not  my  reason  ?  That 
egotism  may  become  reasonable,  is  the  sole 
question  and  the  sole  aim.  If  the  egotism  of  all  men  were  so 
refined  and  educated,  that  they  could  only  be  satisfied  by  justice 
towards  all,  would  there  yet  be  railing  at  egotism  ?  Napoleon's 
egotism  urged  him  to  enslave  men  ;  Robespierre's  egotism  urged 
him  to  liberate  them  ;  Christ's  egotism  urged  him  to  "love" 
them.  It  depends  always  only  on  the  kind  and  the  purpose  of 
the  egotism,  namely,  wether  it  pursues  an  aim,  that  is  merely 
to  the  good  of  itself,  or  wether  it  pursues  an  aim,  that  is  to  the 
good  of  all.  In  as  much  as  my  egotism  requires,  that  I  should 
be  free  and  happy,  it  also  requires,  that  all  other  human  beings 
should  be  free  and  happy.  You  thus  perceive  that  my  egotism 
and  my  love  of  Man  are  vastly  different  from  that  theological 
love  and  that  rude  egotism,  which  so  well  know  how  to  recon- 
cile to  themselves  the  subjection,  the  subordination  and  sacrifice 
of  millions  of  strange  egotisms,  millions  of  strange  lives,  that 
are  homogenous  and  equally  entitled  to  them.  A  man  of  your 
kind  could  quite  easely  be  the  emperor  of  Russia  or  a  similar 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


27 


friend  of  mankind  ;  a  man  of  my  kind  as  the  emperor  of  Russia 
would  have  to  be  the  first  to  rebel  against  himself. 

You  fear,  that  with  belief  the  basis  of  conscience 
would  fall  together.  I  maintain,  that  true  conscience  will  then 
erst  appear.  Reconsider  that  which  has  just  been  said.  What 
do  you  understand  by  conscience  ?  Your  conscience  is 
imagination  and  fear;  my  conscience  is  rea- 
son and  honor.  The  more  free  and  irresponsible  Man  is 
placed  upon  his  own  feet,  the  more  faithfully  and  proudly  will 
he  himself  guard  the  responsibility,  which  reason  and  honor  have 
impressed  on  him.  Therefore  is  that  man  doubly  unworthy  of 
freedom,  who  perceives  in  it  the  atmosphere  of  frivolity.  Free- 
dom  is  not  only  disenchainment,  it  is  also  humanization,  and 
there  is  no  free  man,  who  were  capable  of  being  rude  or  vile. 
Yes  even  the  frivolous  also  escape  not  the  condemnation  of  con- 
science ;  for  reason  can  not  annihilate  its  own  effects.  By  con- 
science I  mean  the  sensation  of  contradiction,  in  which  Man 
comes  with  himself  as  soon  as  he  sins  against  reason  and  human 
dignity,  or  against  the  common  rights  of  Man.  This  contradic- 
tion disturbs  and  annoys  the  reasonable  and  morally  trained 
person,  like  a  chemically  heterogenous  infusion  agitates  a  fluid, 
and  the  propensities  and  necessities  of  his  nature  urge  him  to 
expulse  the  contradiction.  As  feeling  struggles  against  pain, 
so  reason  struggles  against  irrationality.  It  must  struggle 
against  it.  This,  reasonable  Man  would  even  perceive,  though 
the  contradiction  between  reason  and  unreasonableness  did  not 
repeat  itself  in  the  social  misrelations,  in  which  a  transgression 
of  reason  and  right  place  Man  to  his  fellow  Man  —  a  misrela- 
tion,  that  will  erst  then  exert  its  whole  power  of  retribution, 
when  the  infringers  of  right  and  the  infringed  can  no  longer  be 
brought  by  lies  and  belief  in  authority,  to  smother  the  laws  of 
Nature.  With  your  conscience  the  greatest  crimes  against 
mankind  may  be  glossed  over,  if  I  but  succeed  in  passing  on 
them  a  sentence  of  your  dogmatic  wish-wash  as  legitimation. 
But  purely  human  conscience,  the  control  of  which  is  held  by 
free,  never  silent  reason,  glosses  over  nothing,  nothing  at  all, 
that  comes  within  its  province.  You  must  straightway  date 
your  religious  conscience  from  the  "devil",  instead  of  from  "God", 
if  you  reflect  upon  the  shameless  acts  and  inhumanities  of  every 
kind,  which  it  has  not  only  suffered  to  be  committed,  but  even 
sanctioned  and  still  daily  sanctions.  Pure,  human  cons- 
cience has,  as  long  as  the  world  stands,  never 
yet  approved  of  an  inhumanity,  and  its  only  "sin"  has  from  all 
time  consisted  in  its  abandoning  and  casting  off  the  basis  of  your 
sinful  theological  conscience. 

Narrowmindedness  sometimes  gives  rise  to  the  apprehension, 
that  when  the  people  no  longer  believe  in  a  theological  world 
and  in  immortality,  they  will  ravish  their  lives  in  beastliness  and 


SIX  LETTEKS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


Jet  go  the  reins  of  the  rudest  egotism.  I  will  say  nothing  there- 
of, how  rude  it  is  to  generally  refer  Man  with  his  morality  not  to 
reason,  but  to  fear  ;  but  I  leave  you  to  reflect  on  the  folly  of 
the  presupposition  that  a  people,  no  longer  believing  in  those 
things,  will  be  the  same  people,  that  is  now  feared.  The  total 
stripping  off  of  such  a  belief  is  not  consummated  in  a  day.  But 
wherever  it  takes  place,  there  it  is  necessarily  connected  with  a 
transformation  of  the  whole  manner  of  conception  and  with  an 
education,  that  holds  distant  all  fear  of  bestiality  gaining  ground. 
The  populace  never  will,  of  this  one  may  be  assured,  grow  wild 
through  unbelief,  just  because  it  is  no  longer  populace,  when  it 
once  really  abandons  belief.  This,  the  pious  guards  of  morality 
had  better  consider,  apart  from  the  fact,  that  even  in  the  worst 
case  an  atheistical  populace  would  be  capable  of  no  greater  vices 
and  crimes,  than  the  most  religious  daily  present  to  our  eyes. 

You  further  fear,  that  with  the  belief  in  "God"  &c,  "higher 
contemplation",  "higher  aims",  "higher  development"  will  be 
lost  unto  Man.  I  maintain,  that  through  the  doing  away  of 
"belief"  he  will  erst  become  possessed  of  them.  Ask  yourself, 
if  your  belief  has  been  able  to  conceive  of  anything  higher  than 
that,  which  in  S  t  a  t  e,  in  S  c  i  e  n  c  e,  and  Art  the  mind  of  Man 
has  brought  to  light  ?  In  what  do  the  praised  high  contempla- 
tions in  the  province  of  your  belief  consist  ?  What  is  the  *  sub- 
stance of  the  same  ?  Tell  me  I  pray  !  The  highest,  at  which 
you  arrive,  besides  your  carnival-like,  tasteless  and  senseless 
hocus-pocus  of  ceremonies,  is  the  misty  conception  of  a  being, 
to  whom  you  ascribe  the  highest  degree  of  human  qualities,  and 
of  which  you  hope,  that  it  may  lead  you  further  than  your 
belief,  namely,  to  knowledge  in  wisdom.  But  I  tell  you, 
even  presupposing  the  existence  of  a  "God",  that  you  will  once 
not  have  the  slightest  right,  much  less  a  reasonable  ground  for 
that  hope,  since  youforcibly  suppress  cognition 
in  orderto  once  —  attainit.  Why  do  you  not  rather 
abandon  belief  and  begin  at  once  to  recognize,  as 
far  as  it  is  possible  for  you  to  do  ?  How  do  you  come  to  the 
absurd  division  and  the  conclusion,  that  we  must  "here"  dispense 
with  cognition  in  order  to  be  fitted  for  it  "there"  ?  If  your 
religion  promise  contemplation  of  "God",  why  do  you  not  at 
once  enter  upon  this  contemplation  ?  It  will  be  proven,  that 
in  the  "contemplation  of  God"  nothing  can  be  lain  but 
the  cognition  of  the  world  ;  and  this  cognition  it  is,  of  which 
you  want  to  know  nothing.  You  adhere  to  the  theological 
principle,  that  in  life  one  must  endeavor  to  be  a  blockhead  in 
order  to  become  a  wiseacre  after  death.  Such  a  belief  would  be 
thought  very  strange,  if  it  were  not  known,  that  just  the  wise- 
acres support  it  in  order  to  have  at  their  disposal  the  requisite 
number  of  blockheads.  These  are,  indeed,  pretty  "higher  con- 
templations", by  which  from  the  onset  all  other  contemplations 


SIX  L  ETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN, 


29 


are  imprisoned.  But  I  hold  other  views  of  the  way  of  human 
development.  I  know,  that  Man  is  only  of  account  during  Life, 
that  nothing  exists  but  the  world,  that  consequently  Man  can 
have  no  other  aim  as  well  as  no  other  subject  of  cognition,  than 
again  the  world  and  life  in  this  world,  and  that  nothing  can 
afford  higher  contemplation,  than  again  the  world. 

But  Science  is  the  stream,  upon  which  the  recognizing 
mind  of  Man  is  borne  through  this  world  ;  the  State  is  the 
ground,  upon  which  men  stamp  the  general  consciousness  of 
their  position  and  secure  the  general  conditions  of  their  exist- 
ence ;  Art  is  the  province  for  the  infinite  creative  power  of  the 
spirit  of  beauty.  What  more  do  you  yet  wish  for,  worthy  man  ? 
What  can  you  yet  wish  for,  after  having  totally  cultivated  and 
exhausted  these  three  provinces  ?  Look  around  and  ask  your- 
self, if  there  is  not  a  worthy  field  presented  to  you  for  mental 
labor  ? 

And  now  look  not  only  to  the  past,  look  also  to  the  future  ! 
Inquire  into  the  history  of  human  inventions,  discoveries  and 
general  progress,  in  short,  the  spiritual  development  of  the  hu- 
man race  in  all  directions  and  provinces,  and  discern,  that  after 
these  preparatory  labors  and  acquisitions  an  infinite  succession 
of  progressions  may  still  be  seen  in  advance  as  the  elevating 
task  of  the  human  mind  ;  that  there  are  no  boundaries  set  to 
the  development  of  the  spirit  of  Man,  and  that  upon  each  as- 
cended hill  of  Knowledge,  a  higher  and  fairer  hill  presents  itself 
to  view  !  But  keep  two  things  in  sight.  First  do  not  at  once 
demand  a  complete,  perfect  knowledge,  for  herewith  you  demand 
simply  a  state  of  death,  something  impossible,  that  alone  should 
cause  you  to  doubt  in  a  "perfect "  and  "allknowing  God" ; 
secondly  estimate  duely  the  visible  and  tangible  world,  beyond 
which  you  would  assume  a  mysterious  spirit  or  specter-world. 
Consider  how  much  yet  remains  in  the  tangible  world  for  Man 
to  think  and  to  do.  Lose  yourself  for  instance  in  the  myriads 
of  stars,  that  move  in  the  infinite  space  of  the  world  ;  imagine 
that  an  acquaintance  with  these  stars,  yes,  perhaps  an  intelli- 
gible communication  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  same,  is  yet  re- 
served for  Man  ;  in  short,  let  your  phantasie  roam  wherever  you 
wish. 

The  projects,  that  have  arisen,  of  navigating  the  air,  have 
been  ridiculed.  I  hold  this  ridicule  to  be  very  shortsighted. 
I  can  very  well  imagine,  that  when  mankind  have  erst  more 
filled  out  the  sphere  of  knowledge,  presented  to  them  by  the 
earth,  they  will  by  the  help  of  new  inventions,  which  always 
keep  pace  with  other  knowledge,  look  more  closely  on  the  world 
around  them,  to  which  they  likewise  have  their  indirect  claim. 
"Nil  mortalibus  arduum".  That  America  was  discovered,  that 
with  a  thimble  full  of  powder  one  may,  at  a  thousand  paces, 
have  the  life  of  a  human  being  in  power,  that  a  louse  may  be 


30 


SIX  LETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


magnified  to  the  size  of  an  elephant,  that  water-steam  would 
take  the  place  of  a  racehorse,  that  by  means  of  an  iron  wire, 
thoughts  may  be  sent  with  the  swiftness  of  lightning  thousands 
of  miles  through  the  world,  that  the  weight  of  the  sun  may  be 
computed  &c.  —  who  in  times  past  would  have  deemed  this 
possible  ?  Now  we  find  it  so  natural,  that  we  can  scarcely 
comprehend  the  former  disbelief.  But  it  suits  the  turn  of  cer- 
tain persons,  to  always  preach  humility  and  impotence  of  mind ; 
and  those,  who  would  fain  once  let  the  earth  stand  still,  would 
much  to  well  like  to  have  our  reason  also  brought  to  a  stillstand. 

In  viewing  the  progress,  that  human  cognition  has  already 
made,  you  need  not  fear  in  any  respect,  that  its  sphere  is  too 
narrow  and  that,  to  a  due  expansion  of  the  same,  belief  in 
superworldly  or  superhuman  help  is  requisite. 1  That  which  you 
recognize  or  conceive  as  yet  recognizable,  let  suffice  you  a  s 
belonging  to  the  world,  and  quit  the  childish  artifice 
of  underlaying  all  you  observe  with  a  particular  impulse,  or  a 
particular  support,  instead  of  a  life  and  a  law  of  Nature  (as 
also  the  unworthy  weakness  of  forming  a  world  of  belief,  because 
there  is  still  a  world  of  Problems). 

That  childishness,  which  can  not  see  lightning  without  con- 
ceiving a  spirit-hand,  that  sped  the  flash,  and  not  hear  thunder, 
without  imputing  it  to  the  wrathful  voice  of  "God",  and  not 
behold  the  setting  of  the  sun,  without  seeing  in  its  rays  the 
coquetry  of  a  "creator0  with  the  "adoration"  of  his  human 
childern  —  that  childishness,  that  can  take  nothing  for  itself 
and  in  its  true  substance  and  natural  combination,  but  must 
assume  back  of  all  a  spectre-like  or  theatrical  mystery,  has  with 
time  become  too  stale,  that  it  should  be  made  a  retreat  for  the 
lofty  views  of  "God-belief.  Fear  is  the  mother  of  your  "God", 
and  want  of  reflection  the  father  of  your  fear.  Do  you  seek  a 
godly  mystery  in  the  roast,  that  you  eat  ?  Do  you  perchance 
think,  that  in  it  is  revealed  a  bit  of  wisdom,  goodness  &c.  of  the 
creator,  that  sinks  into  your  stomach  ?  Daily  usage  and  tan- 
gible familiarity  has  delivered  you  from  the  veneration  of  a  theo- 
logical roast,  or  ham  ;  ii  has  become  something  quite  natural 
and  explicable,  although  at  the  bottom,  it  has  the  same  claim 
to  "higher  contemplation"  as  every  other  object  of  nature. 
Well  then,  there  is  nothing  standing  opposed  to  your  becoming 
more  or  less  familiar  with  lightning,  with  thunder,  with  the 
sun  and  the  whole  world  in  a  similar  manner  as  with  the  roast. 
If  there  erst  exist  the  familiarity,  the  knowledge,  if  there  but 
exist  the  presentiment  of  knowledge,  to  which  there  is  just  no 
limits  set,  then  will  theology  also  vanish,  as  the  removal  of 
theology  but  opens  the  way  to  that  knowledge.  The  abol- 
ishment of  theology  is  the  entrance  of  Man 
as  proprietor  into  the  infinite  world,  wherein 
he  has  hitherto  been  but  an  antechamber-slave.    Herewith  the 


SIX  L  ETTERS  TO  A  PIOUS  MAN. 


31 


path  of  the  spiritual  conquering  of  the  world,  of  "higher  con- 
templation", is  opened,  but  not,  as  you  opine,  cut  off.  Not  the 
deeper  Man  is  lowered,  but  the  higher  he  is  exalted,  the  higher 
he  stands.  This  truth  is  comprehended  by  the  dullest  school- 
boy, but  not  by  the  most  learned  theologian. 

Pious  man,  give  me  your  hand,  and  let  us  traverse  the  im- 
mensurability  of  Nature.  Behold  the  lightning,  it  darts  harm- 
less upon  the  clod,  which  by  means  of  an  iron  rod  we  have 
appointed  its  grave  ;  listen  to  the  thunder,  it  is  the  music  of 
Nature,  and  tends  to  terrify  none  but  childern  ;  hark  to  the 
storm,  it  vainly  roars  around  our  ship,  that  flies  through  the 
heaving  billows,  and  dare  only  proffer  us  its  wings  ;  look  at  the 
sun,  it  is  our  torch  and  must  be  it,  it  could  not  be  otherwise, 
and  were  we  to  light  its  flame  ourselves,  it  could  not  nearer 
belong  to  us  than  now,  when  Nature  ignites  its  flame  ;  penetrate 
the  hosts  of  stars,  they  but  await  the  hour,  when  a  new  in- 
vention shall  openly  expose  them  to  our  eyes.  Wherever  you 
look,  Man  is  at  home.  All  Nature  is  his  property  as  far 
as  he  conquers  her,  and  to  his  conquests  no  limits  are  set.  And 
though,  in  an  thousandfold  manner,  he  yet  be  hemmed  by  the 
power  of  the  elements,  nevertheless  the  infinite  capacity  dwells 
in  him  to  overcome  them,  and  the  more  he  progresses  in  his  devel- 
opment, the  more  Nature  goes  at  his  hand,  because  she  is  a  whole ; 
and  with  mankind  are  at  once  developed  heaven  and  earth  till 
unto  the  highest  milky:ways  and  down  to  the  deepest  mountain 
ravines.  But  where  the  rude  power  of  the  elements  still  masters 
Man,  where  the  ocean  yet  engulphs  him  and  pestilence  tears  him 
away  :  shall  he  there  humble  himself  before  an  imaginary  mas- 
ter, that  oppresses  him  in  the  form  of  the  ocean  billow  and  the 
plag-boil  ?  No  and  never  !  He  submits,  as  also  must  the  most 
pious  in  spite  of  his  belief,  to  the  unavoidable  laws  of  Nature  ; 
as  a  part  of  this  Nature  he  consciously  fulfils  his  destiny,  and 
what  can  thereby  happen  him  worse  than  —  to  die? 

Pious  man,  learn  to  live,  and  you  will  know  how  to  die.  Learn 
to  become  master  of  your  position,  and  you  will  know  how  to 
remain  master  of  it.  Learn  truely  to  be  Man,  and  you  will  be 
"God".  And  if  in  the  law  of  the  development  of  the  world 
should  stand  written,  what  your  belief  prophecies,  and  what 
science  deduces,  that  the  earth  will  once  be  hurled  to  fragments, 
still  therein  lies  no  ground  for  Man  to  lose  his  selfconsciousness 
as  part  and  his  bearing  as  Lord  of  the  world.  As  individual 
man  lays  down  in  a  grave  of  the  earth,  so  may  all  mankind  to- 
gether with  the  earth  plunge  in  a  grave  of  the  world.  They 
only  thus  furnish  the  material  for  a  higher  continuation  of  the 
world-life.    And  of  this,  Man  should  be  afraid  ? 

Si  fr  actus  illabiturorbis,  impavidum 
feriunt  ruinael 


piWI|P  mgmtn 


r\         Ar  nfYV 


WW 


wm 


